Search continues for 18-year-old kayaker last seen Sunday evening on Benbrook Lake
A search continued Tuesday for an 18-year-old kayaker who went missing on Benbrook Lake over the weekend, according to the Texas Game Wardens.
The man was last seen in a kayak on the lake Sunday evening. The kayak washed ashore later that night without the man, the Texas Game Wardens said in a statement on Tuesday. The agency didn’t release the teen’s identity.
The game wardens and the Benbrook Fire Department have been searching the lake about 10 miles southwest of Fort Worth in shifts since the man’s disappearance, the statement read. Crews encountered high winds and stormy conditions Monday, as well as stumps in the lake that complicated the search. The search area is “quite large,” according to the game wardens.
Kirk McDonnell, a spokesman for the game wardens, was unable to say over the phone on Tuesday morning if the search was a rescue mission or if it had transitioned into a recovery. He acknowledged the search efforts were ongoing but couldn’t say more.
The wardens, according to the statement, “will continue searching for the victim.”
A family friend told WFAA-TV, a Star-Telegram media partner, the lake’s current took the man away around 7:15 p.m. Sunday. His family believes he drowned, according to the family friend, who indicated he wasn’t wearing a life jacket on the kayak.
Search crews scoured the general area on Sunday night until stopping around 3 a.m. Monday, WFAA-TV reported. They resumed the search at 8 a.m. but had to stop for a thunderstorm, according to WFAA-TV, and continued around 2 or 3 p.m.
Crews planned to begin again on Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 11:19 AM.
