1 of 2 Brothers Missing at Sea Is Found Dead in Cave

Channel Islands National Park divers on Sunday discovered the body of one of two brothers at the back of a sea cave on Anacapa Island about 24 hours after relatives reported them missing in a dinghy.

Ventura County Deputy Coroner Dale Zentzis said Bryan Bolton, 21, appears to have drowned. Bolton, a longtime Thousand Oaks resident who was attending college in Utah, was exploring sea caves along Anacapa’s coastline Saturday with his older brother, Monte, before a storm swept into the area.

The Coast Guard and Channel Islands divers called off the search late Sunday afternoon for Monte Bolton, 27, because of turbulent swells and lack of daylight. They will continue the search today.

The brothers, who were visiting their parents in Thousand Oaks for the holidays, were reported missing Saturday afternoon when they were overdue from a trip exploring the island’s coastline in an eight-foot dinghy, authorities said.

They were looking at the sea caves, which they had done before, said Grant Brimhall, a family friend. “It just turned tragic,” he said.

Carol Spears, spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park, said divers thought that they spotted another body in Cathedral Cave where they found Bryan Bolton’s body. But she cautioned that the divers were not sure if the form was a piece of clothing or actually another body. Divers had to suspend their efforts due to rough weather.

“In many of the sea caves, a portion of the cave is under the water and a portion of the cave is above water,” Spears said. “But the swells can completely fill up the caves if they get heavy.”

The two brothers had grown up in Thousand Oaks but later moved to Provo, Utah. Bryan Bolton was attending Utah Valley Community College, and Monte Bolton is a part-time graduate student at Brigham Young University and works in the computer industry, said Karen Sycamore, a family friend.

The brothers’ parents are Thousand Oaks residents, and their father, Edgar Bolton, is a bishop in the Thousand Oaks Third Ward of the Mormon Church.

“They were here for the holidays,” Sycamore said. “They just got back from a skiing trip and then they went sailing.”

The two men had gone on a sailboat with their older brother and two brothers-in-law to Anacapa Island, about 11 miles southwest of Channel Islands Harbor. Bryan and Monte Bolton had decided to explore some sea caves on the island and left in a dinghy, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jamie Devitt.

They were last seen heading west from the north side of the island, and authorities early Sunday found the dinghy about 50 yards north of Cathedral Cave, “upright but full of water,” Devitt said.

Would-be rescuers had some trouble getting into the cave because of the storm and the small size of the cave, Devitt said. An hour after Bryan Bolton was spotted under water, authorities were still having trouble entering the cave.

Divers had to fight four-foot seas and winds reaching 17 m.p.h., Devitt said. Edgar Bolton had chartered a private vessel to help look for his sons. After searching all day with his oldest son and Monte Bolton’s wife, the family members returned to the mainland Sunday afternoon as well.

“The family has no comment at this time,” an aunt of the two brothers said.

Devitt said she did not know if the two brothers were experienced sailors, but Sycamore said the family had owned a sailboat for about 10 years.

The family moved to Thousand Oaks from the San Fernando Valley about 14 years ago. Both Bryan and Monte Bolton attended schools in Thousand Oaks and graduated from Westlake High School, Sycamore said.

“Bryan was a very quiet man, a very serious young man,” Brimhall said. “He was a peacemaker kid. My son-in-law worked very closely with him in church activities.”

Brimhall said Monte Bolton is “a genius--exceptionally gifted at an early age in computers and mathematics.”

The coroner’s office has scheduled an autopsy of Bryan Bolton’s body for today to determine an official cause of death.