Family of 18-year-old frustrated as search for his body continues in Benbrook Lake
A heartbroken Juan Reyes sat in an SUV Thursday morning at Benbrook Lake along with other solemn family members and friends, waiting on word when the body of 18-year-old Jose Reyes would be found.
Jose Reyes went missing Sunday evening in the lake while kayaking and is believed to have drowned.
One Texas Parks and Wildlife Department boat was out searching Thursday morning, along with a handful of volunteers.
But Jose’s brother Juan Reyes and other relatives say they think lake authorities have been dragging their feet in the search for the 2020 Everman High School graduate.
Family members said few authorities have been out at the lake to search for Jose Reyes and there has been only one boat sent by officials to comb the waters.
“Just take a look. It’s empty,” Juan Reyes said Thursday morning as he pointed to the area where his younger brother was last seen Sunday evening. “We need help.”
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a news release that authorities are doing all they can to search for Reyes. “However, due to various factors including high winds and stormy conditions this week, and the presence of numerous tree stumps and other obstacles under the water’s surface, sending in divers is far too dangerous without having a positive identifiable image from sonar,” the release said.
The family said they were told a second boat was in for repairs, limiting the search to one official boat. Two boats were out on the lake Thursday morning, but relatives of Jose Reyes said one belonged to their friends who are helping to search.
But a TPWD captain told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram crews have been out every day in the search for Jose Reyes.
“We are looking for a victim,” TPWD Capt. Cliff Swofford said Thursday. “He’s someone’s son, brother.”
Swofford said crews have taken breaks at times because of bad weather or just to rest.
“We are doing the same thing we do for every drowning at lakes,” Swofford said. “We are not doing anything different in our search.”
TPWD officials released this statement on Thursday: “Texas Game Wardens and other authorities in the Benbrook Lake area are continuing to follow rigorous search protocols daily. Texas Game Wardens will pursue the search until the individual has been recovered.”
Search 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 a Tuesday statement by the Texas Game Wardens, who are part of TPWD.
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.
Jeff Burns, owner of North Texas Marine Recovery & Salvage, said Thursday that authorities would need to locate the body before divers jump into the lake. Burns has been a diver for 25 years and he’s dived into Benbrook Lake almost 20 times.
“There’s no point for a diver to go into the water and search the whole lake,” Burns said. “Why put someone else in danger, because once you get in a few inches at Benbrook, there is no visibility.”
Generally, Burns said, authorities use sonar to find a body.
Swofford told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV that the search has been challenging.
“If you were to drain that lake, it’s a forest,” Swofford said. “There’s trees everywhere. So that prevents us from having more specialized equipment we’d like to use, which is a towable sonar.”
Search teams are relying on boats equipped with standard sonar, TPWD said.
“The search may look different as time goes on, and as resources are available or not available, but we’re not going anywhere,” Swofford said. “We stay in the fight until closure is had.”
Swofford noted that a cadaver dog would be used on the lake on Friday.
On Thursday, relatives of Jose Reyes set up camp at Holiday Park at Benbrook Lake and waited.
Many of them have been at the lake every day since Sunday evening.
“I got here as fast as I could Sunday evening, and we walked the shoreline from about 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. in the morning,” Gerardo Reyes of Saginaw said Thursday. He’s Jose Reyes’ uncle. “I never saw anyone else looking for him.”
Gerardo Reyes said park rangers occasionally stopped and flashed their lights, but nothing more on Sunday evening.
Relatives of Jose Reyes said a few divers have stopped by and volunteered to search, but the game wardens have refused their requests. Other people with dogs also have been denied access to search the lake, the family said.
Jose Reyes was last seen in a kayak on the lake Sunday evening. The kayak washed ashore later that night without him.
His brother said Jose Reyes knew how to swim.
“We’re just trying to contact people to help,” Juan Reyes said. “This was the first time he had ever gone kayaking.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 1:11 PM.
