Body recovered from lake in Mount Rainier National Park

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — The Pierce County Sheriff's Department dive team recovered the body of a 23-year-old man from an unnamed lake below Emmons Glacier near White River Campground in Mount Rainier National Park.

On Saturday, Specialist Antonio Scott of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was swimming in the lake with friends. As he crossed the lake, he began to struggle, and though friends tried to help, he went under water and did not come up.

One of Scott’s friends told a ranger at the White River Campground what happened, and a team was quickly put together to begin searching.

Using sonar and divers to search, the dive team found the victim on their second day of searching.

“We send our deepest condolences to Specialist Scott’s family, friends, and military colleagues,” said Tracy Swartout, deputy superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park. “We also appreciate the many searchers who contributed to locating him.”

Pierce County Sheriff’s dive team, Mountain Rescue Association members representing Central Washington, Tacoma, Olympic and Seattle mountain rescue organizations, Northwest Helicopters, and Mount Rainier National Park rangers participated in the search.

Cox Media Group