Boater Drowns, Friend Missing

One man drowned and another was missing after their small powerboat capsized in heavy seas Monday off Oxnard Shores, authorities said.

Lane Mitchell, 40, of Lancaster was pulled from the water about 2 p.m. by rescue swimmers with the Oxnard Fire Department. He was airlifted by Sheriff’s Department helicopter to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A search for the second man, also of Lancaster, continued into Monday evening. The search involved two Sheriff’s Department helicopters, a Coast Guard helicopter and boats and the Channel Islands Harbor Patrol.

Both men worked as ride mechanics at Magic Mountain amusement park near Valencia, said Mitchell’s wife, Doris. She said Monday was their day off and they left with Mitchell’s trailered 20-foot boat about 4 a.m.

“We were going to sell the boat, and they were going to take it out fishing one last time,” she said. “He took a deep-sea pole with him. He liked fishing for tuna and bass.”

Authorities said the pair encountered heavy winds and 6-foot surf Monday afternoon about 200 yards offshore, just south of the beach at 5th Street.

A construction worker at a nearby beachfront home said the men appeared to be having engine trouble just before the boat capsized.

“They opened the engine compartment and got it going again,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “They looked like they were doing fine.”

Neither man was wearing a life jacket, he said.

Moments later, the boat capsized, said the owner of the house, who called 911.

Leslie Somma and Carol Weiskopf, both nurses at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, were walking near Mandalay State Beach when they detected the odor of gasoline, looked out and saw the pair in the water.

“I saw two heads bobbing in the water,” said Somma, 30.

The blue-and-yellow-hulled boat--along with both men--was being pushed south by strong currents, Somma said.

“We ran down the beach to keep up with the bodies,” she said.

Weiskopf, 37, said when one of the men disappeared underwater, she knew it would not be safe to go in after them.

“I wish there was something I could have done,” she said. “But it was just too turbulent.”

Terry Miklos and Bill Gallaher, both rescue swimmers with the Oxnard Fire Department, found Mitchell’s body floating in the water off Oxnard State Beach, an area not served by lifeguards.

“We pulled him in and began administering CPR on him,” Miklos said.

Authorities said Mitchell showed no signs of life when pulled from the water.

Paramedics spent 25 minutes trying to revive him, and at 2:40 p.m. he was flown to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, authorities said.

Debris from the boat was strewn along a three-mile stretch of beach from 5th Street to Channel Islands Harbor.

When the capsized vessel reached the Channel Islands Harbor entrance, a harbor patrol boat tied towed it in.

Doris Mitchell, 54, a substitute teacher, was told of her husband’s death about 5:30 p.m.

“This is pretty hard for me to believe because he was always so strong,” she said. “He could handle himself in any situation.”

She noted that her husband died Monday the same way his brother died more than 20 years ago. “His older brother died when he was 18. He drowned too. Lane’s always been kind of leery of the water ever since.”

Her husband was a good swimmer, she said, and always carried life jackets on board.

“Now that I think about it, when we went out to the lake, he would make everybody wear their life jacket. But he wouldn’t always put his on.

Doris and Lane were married 18 years. They met when both were musicians in Bellingham, Wash.

“We had a family band called Tarot. I played keyboard and was a lead singer, and Lane played guitar and was a lead singer,” she said.

The group played various clubs in the Bellingham area in northwest Washington. In 1991, the couple decided to try their music in Southern California.

“We wrote songs together, and I guess we did about 100 together,” she said.

Lane loved roller coasters, his wife said, and his first job as a ride mechanic was at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park. He left soon after and had since been working at Magic Mountain, she said.

Although their five grown children were not involved with music as much their parents, Doris and Lane never gave up on their first love, and at the time of Lane’s death, they had several songs in the works.

“We were getting into country and western toward the end,” she said.

“The coroner made a positive ID of Lane using his driver’s license,” she said. “I hope they find his friend.”