1990 — Feb 19, three teenagers fall through thin ice, four rescuers die, Lake Convict, CA–7
–7 AP. “Cameras assist search for bodies.” Ironwood Daily Globe, MI. 2-26-1990, p. 2.
–7 Associated Press. “Divers hunt for 7 bodies.” Ukiah Daily Journal, CA, 2-20-1990, p. 1.
Narrative Information
Feb 20: “Convict Lake, Calif. — Seven people apparently drowned in this freezing Sierra lake Monday [Feb 19], three of them teen-agers on a holiday skating party and four would-be rescuers….The victims lingered in the water for up to 15 minutes before succumbing, one witness estimated. ‘We could see them bobbing around,’ said volunteer firefighter Jim Lambert, one of the rescuers. “The captain (on the ice) could hear someone saying, ‘Throw me a rope!’ ”
“One of the survivors, identified by several sources as volunteer fire chief Chris Baitx, plunged through the ice as he tried to reach the teen-agers, who were residents of a nearby nonprofit[1] probation-type camp. Attached to Baitx was a 14-foot aluminum ladder, which pulled him down. Three times, he made his way back to the surface and punched his arms and head through the ice long enough to gather a breath before the ladder dragged him down again, a witness said. After his third effort, a diver was able to pull him to safety….
“The three youths were clients of Camp O’Neal, which handles troubled youngsters ages 13 to 16 from throughout California. The camp is located across U.S. 395 from the lake….
“The incident apparently began shortly after noon at Convict Lake, a picturesque vacation spot in the mid-Sierra that is favored by trout fishermen. The lake is set in a granite bowl just north of Crowley Lake and southeast of Mammoth Lakes. Full details of the trip were not know Monday, but Strelneck said initial information indicated that several children from Camp O’Neal went over to the lake early Monday. Other sources said they were skating on the lake that had frozen just over the weekend….
“…witnesses said that when the children were about 200 yards offshore, the ice apparently broke and they plummeted into the frigid water. The first rescuers were camp counselors who were either playing with the children or immediately nearby. Two of them also fell through the ice and apparently died, Strelneck said. The second wave of rescuers brought the Forest Service employee, who lived at the lake, and the volunteer firefighter who also was believed to have died….At its height, the search effort included 60 to 70 people — local volunteer firefighters, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies…” (Los Angeles Times. “7 Apparently Drown in Freezing Sierra Lake…” 2-20-1990.)
Feb 20: “Mammoth Lakes (AP) — Divers slipped into frigid Convict Lake today to hunt for seven bodies, three of them teen-agers on a holiday outing and four would-be rescuers who crashed through ice sheets into the murky waters. The teens — all 13- to 16-year-olds from a nearby camp for youthful offenders — were on an outing when they apparently fell through thin ice around noon Monday [Feb 19]…
“Eleven divers began the recovery operation today at the remote Sierra lake, said sheriff’s spokes-woman Gail Merritt. Markers near holes in the ice, about 200 yards offshore, showed where the victims slipped through. Body recovery could be hampered because the extreme cold may force the bodies to the bottom of the lake, which is 140 feet deep at its deepest point, said Mono County Sheriff-Coroner M.A. Strelneck Jr.
“The 30-member recovery team included representatives of various agencies: Divers from Washoe County, Nev., military personnel and helicopters from China Lake and Sacramento, and an ice boat from the Truckee Fire Department.
“The ski resort community was stunned by the tragedy, which ranks among the worst of its kind in the United States in at least a decade. Restaurant manager Remington Slifka was troubled. ‘Taking the kids out on the ice without knowing the conditions is a tragedy,’ said Slifka. ‘The thing about Convict Lake is that it’s day to day…One day it will be icy, the next day it will be water.’
“Two 13-year-old boys, one from Tulare County and the other from Redlands, and a 14-year-old from Tulare weren’t named because of their ages. Strelneck said the adults were Dave Meyers, 53, of Bishop; Randy Porter, age unknown, of June Lake; Clay Cutter, age unknown, of Convict Lake; and Vidar Anderson, 58, of Long Valley. ‘It was horrifying,’ said Pierre LaBossiere, a reporter who watched three of the four men go into the icy waters of Convict Lake, never to reappear.
“One youth, separate from the three who could not be rescued, fell into the water, but escaped by crawling back onto the ice, LaBossiere said. The 15-year-old youth was treated for hypothermia at Centinela Mammoth Hospital and released Monday, said a hospital official who declined to give her name. A paramedic was hospitalized overnight for observation, she said.
“Would-be rescuers used a combination of rubber boats and ropes to try and reach the youths in the water, but to no avail. The lake froze over the bodies, said Strelneck. The hole they fell through froze over within hours, said Strelneck. Two Camp O’Neal counselors fell into the lake as they tried to save the youths, Strelneck said. A U.S. Forest Service worker and a volunteer firefighter followed them into the frigid water. None were immediately identified.
“A fourth teen-ager who fell through clambered back onto the ice and walked to safety, LaBossiere said….The youths were playing on the ice about 200 yards from shore when the surface gave way, Strelneck said. Arriving soon after the boys fell through the snow-covered lake surface, LaBossiere said he saw one youth bobbing on the surface in an ice hole. ‘Two rescue people were kneeling on the ice,’ said LaBossiere, a reporter for the Mono County Review Herald. ‘About 20 minutes later, one guy went into the ice.’ As he and dozens of others on shore watched helplessly, two other adult rescuers plunged into the lake in failed attempts to reach the teen-ager still floundering in the icy water. ‘It was horrible,’ he said. ‘They were trying to figure out any way to get across the ice. It was such an incredibly long distance. They couldn’t just stick a rope out there.’
“Forest Service spokeswoman Margaret Gorski said the accident happened in the center of the lake, which is a mile long and an eighth- to a quarter-mile wide.
“About 70 would-be rescuers used rubber boats and ropes to try to reach the youths, but to no avail. The firefighter who fell in was a member of the volunteer Long Valley Fire Department…
“The state-run probation camps are for young people convicted of relatively minor offenses.
“Convict Lake, just south of the Mammoth ski resort, got its name from a shootout between a posse and convicts in the late 1800s.
“People ski and skate on the lake in winter, LaBossiere said.” (Associated Press. “Divers hunt for 7 bodies.” Ukiah Daily Journal, CA, 2-20-1990, p. 1 and 12.)
Feb 21: “Mammoth Lakes — Rescue workers who pulled the first of seven bodies from frigid Convict Lake called on deep-diving experts to help plumb the numbing waters for six others still trapped under the ice today. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department diving team, with special equipment designed for ice-cold waster and capable of reaching depths of 300 feet, left for the Sierra Nevada lake Tuesday night [Feb 20], said Deputy Chris Wahla.
“The bodies of three teens from a nearby youth camp and three of the adults who tried to rescue them were still missing in the lake, believed to be as deep as 140 feet, authorities said. The body of Clayton Cutter, 31, a US Forest Service ranger who lived near Convict Lake, was found by divers who searched in pairs for 10-minute spans Tuesday….
“Twelve teenagers and two adults from Camp O’Neal, a residential facility for troubled youths had been on a Presidents Day outing when disaster struck….
For those watching from the shore, horror turned to hysteria, as the tragedy was compounded again and again. ‘It was a bad scene and it just kept getting worse,’ said Chris Baitx, 31, chief of the Long Valley volunteer fire department. Baitx also slipped beneath the splintering sheets of ice while attempting to rescue the floundering victims, but he was pulled to safety by a diver for the June Lake Search and Rescue Team. He was released Tuesday after spending the night at Centinela Mammoth Hospital in Mammoth Lakes. Baitx had been trying to pull out one of the camp counselors when the ice suddenly collapsed beneath him, and he found himself trapped under the ice. ‘I had to bet the ice out with my hands,’ Baitx said. ‘I was sure I was gone. I was thinking of my wife and kids and are they going to be OK, because I’m history.’….
“The still-missing adults included Dave Meyers, 53, of Bishop; Randy Porter…of June Lake; and Vidar Anderson, 58, of Long Valley. David Christopher Sellers, 15, of Tulare, Shawn Rayne Diaz, 15, of Dinuba, and Ryan Charles McCandless, 13, of Redlands also were among the missing….
“The Los Angeles team’s five divers, unlike the scuba divers who recovered Cutter’s body, use insulated rubberized diving suits with 300-foot breathing hoses, Wahla said. They can dive deeper and remain in the icy water longer. ‘We’re one of the few agencies in the state that has this equipment and the expertise to use it,’ Wahla said.
“Cutter’s wife, Terry, had watched from their balcony as her husband ran across the frozen lake to try to aid the floundering teenagers and two camp counselors, who were bobbing and thrashing in holes broken in the ice. ‘Just watching those heads bobbing up and down was too much,’ Baitx said. ‘We figured we should have waited for the rescue team. But wen people are bobbing up and down, you know what’s next.’….” Associated Press. “One body recovered from Convict Lake.” .” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-21-1990, A3.
Feb 21: “The Associated Press. Mammoth Lake — US Forest Service officials say they don’t have standards for ice thickness to protect people venturing onto frozen lakes like the one that cracked open and swallowed up seven people ‘It’s more or less left up to people’s own judgment,’ Fred Richter, Nordic supervisor for the US Forest Service here, said Tuesday.
“Officials at the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the State Department of Parks and Recreation said those agencies also have no set standards for frozen lake safety.
“Strict standards rigorously enforced with warning signs, patrols and periodic ice measurements are the norm in cold-weather cities in the eastern United States and Canada. Minneapolis requires 4½ to 5 inches and restricts the public to few well-patrolled areas. New York City requires 5 inches of ice thickness in bodies of water over 3 feet deep. In Canada, Winnipeg demands at least 12 inches and Edmonton 15 inches. (AP. “California lacks safety standards for venturing onto frozen lakes.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-21-1990, A3.)
Feb 22: “Mammoth Lakes — Deep-diving, cold water experts recovered five more bodies from iced-over Convict Lake using sophisticated underwater camera gear to spot the submerged victims. After pulling what was the sixth of seven drowning from the lake late Wednesday, authorities halted the recovery effort to give exhausted divers a chance to recuperate….The remaining body is that of Dave Meyers, 53, of Bishop. The deaths caused by thin ice came Monday, Meyers’ first day as a counselor at Camp O’Neal, a facility for troubled youths. Three teen-agers from the camp were the first to plunge into the bone-chilling waters of the high-altitude lake….
“The victims’ friends and relatives questioned US Forest Service policies that leave judging ice thickness up to individual common sense at the hundreds of lakes in the rugged Sierra Nevada range. ‘They definitely need signs out there,’ said Tracey Wood, a fried of Cutter. ‘I know people are going to be rebellious, but before they advertise a lake for ice skating they better let people know how thin the ice is.’ Convict Lake brochures tout its ice skating…” (Associated Press. “Underwater camera help divers retrieve 5 more bodies at lake.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-22-1990, A3.)
Feb 23: “Mammoth Lakes — Camp O’Neal, the facility overseeing three teen-agers who drowned in Convict Lake, has been repeatedly cited for violations of state licensing standards, authorities said. Violations included improperly supervising and medicating residents, failing to adequately train staff members and not properly clothing youngsters. ‘There have been some pretty chronic problems there,’ said Kathleen Norris, a state Department of Social Services spokeswoman….The…Department…which licenses the camp to treat emotionally-troubled youths, was one of several agencies investigating the tragedy. Camp director Bobbi Trott maintained the camp has been the target of overzealous inspectors from the state’s Riverside licensing office.
“Last month, state officials accused Camp O’Neal of tranquilizing youngsters against their will. A state inspector reported one youth was ‘lethargic and overmedicated’ and another vomited when given medication. The camp was cited for lack of supervision last December when an inspector discovered a resident had attempted sexual acts with nine other youths, according to state reports. The facility also was cited for inadequately staffing in 1988 when there were 21 reported incidents of youths leaving the grounds without permission.” (AP. “Convict Lake camp cited for violating standards.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-23-1990, A3.)
Feb 26: Mammoth Lakes, Calif. (AP) — Aided by a sophisticated underwater video camera, divers spotted and retrieved the body of the last of seven victims who died after plunging into an icy lake. The body of Dave ‘Grandpa’ Meyers, one of four would-be rescuers who perished trying to save three teen-agers who fell through thin ice on Lake Convict on Feb 19, was recovered Sunday [Feb 25]. Divers recovered the other six bodies last week.
“Meyers, 53, of Bishop, was a counselor at Camp O’Neal, where the three teen-agers were residents. Also killed were another counselor, a volunteer firefighter and a forest ranger.
“Camp O’Neal, near the lake in the Sierra Nevada 250 miles north of Los Angeles, is a home for youngsters placed by county social service agencies as well as youths who have committed minor crimes and are on probation.” (Associated Press. “Cameras assist search for bodies.” Ironwood Daily Globe, MI. 2-26-1990, p. 2.)
March 16: “Newport Beach — The attending psychiatrist at Convict Lake’s Camp O’Neal, where three teen-age residents drowned last month, was arrested Thursday [March 15] on suspicion of sexual abuse of one of his Newport Beach patients, police said. Dr. James H. White, 47, was arrested on a $500,000 felony warrant charging him with oral copulation on a victim under the influence of an anesthetic substance in an incident at his Corona del Mar home, Sgt. Any Gonis said.
“A 29-year-old man filed a complaint with police March 5. He told police he was being treated by White for stress from a back injury suffered last summer and the doctor had invited him to stay at his home. The victim claimed that he was under medication given to him by the doctor when the alleged oral copulation occurred. He told police he did not know about it until later when he found pictures and video-tapes of the incident among the doctor’s belongings. The patient also told police that he saw pictures and videotapes of other unidentified men who appeared unconscious as White allegedly performed sex acts on them….
“White was the consulting psychiatrist at Camp O’Neal near Convict Lake…He also was director of the camp’s non-profit foundation, according to state records.
“Tulare County probation officials…expressed concern about medical supervision of mood-altering drugs prescribed by White for the juvenile residents because he lived in Newport Beach. Camp officials said White visited the camp once a week and did not prescribe drugs over the phone.” (Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. “Convict Lake camp’s psychiatrist arrested.” 3-16-1990, p. 38.)
March 17: “Mammoth Lakes, Calif. (UPI) — The state shut down a camp for troubled boys Friday following an investigation into the drowning deaths of three boys and four would-be rescuers last month in an ice-covered Sierra lake. The investigation found that boys had been sexually abused and drugged at Camp O’Neal, and uncovered other violations of state regulations.
“Investigators concluded that the Feb. 19 drownings at Convict Lake resulted from a ‘lack of appropriate care and supervision’ by the staff, said Kathleen Norris, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services.
“Social workers removed the last 16 teenagers from the camp Friday morning and suspended the facility’s operating license. Worried county officials had earlier pulled the rest of the youngsters from the camp, which houses 34 youths.
“Bobbi Trott, executive director of the private, non-profit camp, said the state’s action was unfounded and vowed to appeal. ‘The kids were real upset. They were in tears. They didn’t want to go. This is their home. This has happened real suddenly,’ Trott said.
“A group of boys from the camp and two counselors were playing on the frozen lake during a Presidents Day hike when several of the teens split off from their supervisors and walked to the lake’s center….
“Mono County District Attorney Stan Eller said he is reviewing a 120-page report on the drownings to determine whether criminal charges are warranted….
“The state investigation into the drowning uncovered that staff member Susan Spier allegedly sexually abused a camp resident in 1988 and allegedly made sexual advances toward other boys. Trott allegedly halted an internal investigation by camp staff into the incident.
“The state investigation also substantiated reports that at least four younger boys at the camp allegedly ere sexually abused by an older teenage resident in 1989.” (UPI. “State closes camp where 7 were drowned.” Times-Standard, Eureka CA. 3-17-1990, p. 5.)
Sources
Associated Press. “California lacks safety standards for venturing onto frozen lakes.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-21-1990, A3. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-feb-21-1990-p-3/
Associated Press. “Cameras assist search for bodies.” Ironwood Daily Globe, MI. 2-26-1990, p. 2. Accessed 12-13-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/ironwood-daily-globe-feb-26-1990-p-2/
Associated Press. “Convict Lake camp cited for violating standards.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-23-1990, A3. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-feb-23-1990-p-3/
Associated Press. “Divers hunt for 7 bodies.” Ukiah Daily Journal, CA, 2-20-1990, p. 1 and 12. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/ukiah-daily-journal-feb-20-1990-p-1/
Associated Press. “One body recovered from Convict Lake.” .” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-21-1990, A3. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-feb-21-1990-p-3/
Associated Press. “Underwater camera help divers retrieve 5 more bodies at lake.” Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. 2-22-1990, A3. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-feb-22-1990-p-3/
Los Angeles Times. “7 Apparently Drown in Freezing Sierra Lake…” 2-20-1990. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-02-20/news/mn-1121_1_holiday-skating-party
Mammoth Times, CA. “Book on Convict Lake drowning accident both heals, hurts.” Feb 2012. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pqeQPCJkOc8J:https://mammothtimes.com/content/book-convict-lake-drowning-accident-both-heals-hurts+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-ab
Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA. “Convict Lake camp’s psychiatrist arrested.” 3-16-1990, p. 38. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-mar-16-1990-p-38/
United Press International. “State closes camp where 7 were drowned.” Times-Standard, Eureka CA. 3-17-1990, p. 5. Accessed 12-14-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/eureka-times-standard-mar-17-1990-p-5/
[1] Not accurate. Camp O’Neal was a for-profit “therapeutic school” for troubled youth. It closed down shortly after this tragedy “under a storm of controversy over allegations of neglect, abuse, and sexual impropriety.” (Mammoth Times, CA. “Book on Convict Lake drowning accident both heals, hurts.” Feb 2012.)