Tragic End to Father-Son Trip

With only a few days left in the school year, Mark Parker wanted to treat his son to a surprise fishing trip at Lake Piru.

But the father-son outing came to a tragic end after Parker suddenly collapsed onto the throttle of their boat, which hit a wake and knocked them into the choppy water. Parker died in Wednesday’s accident, which may have been triggered by a heart attack.

Thirteen-year-old Brett struggled to keep his father afloat. “But I couldn’t save him,” Brett said Thursday from his Thousand Oaks home. “He was sinking too fast.”

The boy flagged down a nearby boat, whose driver rescued him and called for help.

Sheriff’s divers found the 52-year-old Parker just before 11 a.m. Thursday in 35 feet of water at the northern end of the lake. They had searched into the night and returned at 7 a.m. to continue scouring the waters. The coroner will conduct an autopsy this morning to determine the cause of death.

“We really don’t know if it was a drowning or a heart attack,” said Senior Deputy Frank Underlin of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “But it’s truly tragic. [Brett] is in the lake holding onto his father and has to ultimately let him go to save himself.”

Family members described Parker as a fun, hard-working father who had lived in Thousand Oaks for nearly 20 years and worked at a gas station. He had been married for nearly 20 years and also had a 19-year-old son, Drew.

Although the Vietnam veteran had heart problems and walked with a prosthetic left leg, he loved to golf, snow ski and fish. He surfed as a teenager but was no longer a strong swimmer, said his wife, Dawn.

Dawn Parker, a nurse, said she did not know that the pair had gone fishing and was still in shock Thursday. “This has been like a nightmare,” she said.

The outing began after Brett finished his half day of classes at Redwood Middle School on Wednesday. They stopped by the front gate at Lake Piru to pick up a day-use permit, loaded their Australian shepherd, Sam, onto their boat and set out.

After a few hours on the water, they headed north on the lake when Brett saw his father clutch his chest and fall onto the throttle. The boat lurched forward and hit a wake, which tossed them over the edge, Brett said. Neither was wearing a life jacket.

Brett, paddling furiously, saw his father floating on the surface, his face blue. The teen swam to him and tried to hold him up, but his father was too heavy and slipped through his arms.

“I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t happening,’ ” Brett said.

Meanwhile, the 16-foot motorized boat hit Brett in the head and then started turning in circles. After hitting a buoy, the boat stopped running and drifted to shore.

Rangers said the vintage fiberglass craft, which was towed to the marina, appeared to have mechanical problems. On the boat were fishing poles and two life jackets.

The search for Parker’s body included nine volunteer rescue divers, two sheriff’s personnel, two boats and a helicopter. Although the waters were clear, wind and darkness prompted the Sheriff’s Department to suspend the search at 10 p.m. Wednesday before resuming early Thursday.

“It’s a large body of water, so it’s almost like a needle in a haystack sometimes,” said Arve Wells, a captain in the sheriff’s search and rescue unit.

Divers finally located Parker’s body about 50 feet from the shore when they found pieces of the shattered buoy on the lake bottom.

The lake, which is 138 feet at its deepest point, is a mile wide and four miles long. The water temperature is currently about 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and drops about 10 to 15 degrees at night, rangers said.

Parker is the seventh person to die in Lake Piru since 1994. Most of the drowning victims could not swim well and were not wearing vests.

Rangers at Lake Piru said the accident underscores the importance of life jackets. “It’s a waste,” said Chief Ranger Jack Withers. “I think [Parker] would have been rescued if he had a vest on.”