LAKE COUNTY ? The search continued Monday for a 22-year-old Windsor man who disappeared after he either jumped or fell off of a boat Saturday afternoon near Buckingham Point.
Matthew Zanoni was reportedly on his way to BoardStock with seven friends on a pontoon boat, according to Sgt. Dennis Ostini of the Lake County Sheriff”s marine patrol unit. Ostini said the group never made it to BoardStock, but stopped at Buckingham Point near Shag Rock.
Ostini said witnesses at the scene said Zanoni and others on the boat had been drinking, but that the extent of the drinking was unknown. “The operator was not under the influence,” Ostini said.
Why Zanoni went into the water head first is also unknown, according to Ostini. He initially said Zanoni”s friends thought he was joking around, but jumped in look for him when he did not resurface.
One of the boat”s passengers placed an emergency call just before 3 p.m. Marine patrol personnel responded to the area described by the caller immediately, but did not find Zanoni.
“Unfortunately, the young lady who called was not familiar with the lake, nor was anybody else on the boat. She initially reported that they were near Rattlesnake Island,” Ostini said. When a fisherman reported that the boat was near Shag Rock, Ostini said responders were six miles away.
Ostini said he believed Zanoni had been in the water approximately five minutes by the time the call was made. “We are are searching even as we speak,” said Ostini, who supervises the Sheriff”s marine patrol unit. Divers from Marin and Sonoma counties arrived Monday morning to help in the search, along with side scan sonar equipment from Aqua-Tech Inc. of Santa Rosa, Ostini said. The sonar equipment aided deputies in finding the body of Vacaville resident John Leon Stockton, 44, in May. Ostini estimated the lake”s depth in the area at 29 feet, and the visibility at about one foot. The search continued through Saturday and all day Sunday. Ostini said Monday that divers would continue likely through daylight hours Monday, or until Zanoni is found.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
