Motorized Ski Rider, 51, Killed

A 51-year-old Glendora man riding a motorized water ski died Sunday after an apparent accident at Castaic Lake Recreation Area that may have been caused by another person on a similar vehicle who fled after the crash, authorities said.

Louie Ronald Ellis was found floating in the water about 10:15 a.m. by a friend who accompanied him to the lake, said Steve Henrickson, a supervisor at the county-run state park.

Ellis was alive when he was found but died en route to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita, said Deputy Brian Jones of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

It was the first watercraft fatality of the season at the park and the third since the recreational facility opened in 1972. In 1992, a Foster City woman died when she was accidentally hit by a motorized water ski driven by her boyfriend.

Jones said homicide detectives suspect that Ellis collided with another rider in the upper part of the lake. That area--about a mile long, half a mile wide and 200 to 300 feet deep--was roped off for the exclusive use of motorized ski riders in 1987 because of safety concerns, Henrickson said.

Jones said that the incident is still under investigation and that detectives are looking for another vehicle that may have been damaged in a crash.

Henrickson said Ellis, a silver-haired man who weighed about 250 pounds, could have died from causes other than a crash because he saw no serious wounds.

“There were no visible wounds on him whatsoever,” Henrickson said. “We all think we know things conclusively by the evidence in hand and it turns out to be totally wrong. I think when they finish with an autopsy it will reveal a lot.”