On Tuesday, Anacortes Police received a third-hand report of a missing swimmer at Whistle Lake. The man reportedly became separated from his friend at about 4 PM Tuesday. At 10:30 PM Officers received a phone call from an Oak Harbor woman who told them that a female friend had come to her apartment and said that a 28-year-old Freeland man had failed to come out of the water when the two were at Whistle Lake earlier in the day.
The young women had not notified the authorities. In the dark, officers checked the lake and the surrounding area and did not locate the man.
Wednesday officers asked the woman to come in for questioning and requested assistance from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Dive Team. The woman showed divers where she had last seen the man and divers located his body in about 20 feet of water a short distance from where the woman had last seen him.
The incident is still under investigation; however it appears that the man most likely drowned while trying to swim across the lake.