Bodies of Two Killed in Boat Crash Found
The bodies of a Chatsworth woman and her 8-year-old daughter, missing for two days after a boating collision involving a Sherman Oaks man, were recovered Friday from Lake Havasu, the Mohave County, Ariz., sheriff said.
The victims of the boating accident that occurred Tuesday were identified as Diane Marks, 42, and Laura Bloch, 8, Mohave County Sheriff Joe Bonzelet said.
There was no significant trauma to either body and both died of drowning after being thrown into the lake, Mohave County Medical Examiner Henry Snell reported.
The woman’s common-law husband and Laura’s father, Michael Bloch, 38, remained in guarded condition at Havasu Regional Hospital after the removal of his spleen Thursday, hospital spokesman Dave Gabler said.
The accident occurred about 6 p.m., when a speedboat operated by John A. Brubaker, 18, hit the right side of Bloch’s 20-foot motorboat in the marina area of the lake on the California-Arizona border, authorities said.
A passing boater rescued Michael Bloch, but Marks and her daughter could not be found.
Bonzelet said that fatal boat accidents are common on Lake Havasu.
“There are people from California who come here to have a good time, and a lot of times, they’re so concerned with that that they lose perspective of safety,” he said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
