King County Sheriff’s Office teams are searching Lake Kathleen this week for a 51-year-old man who went missing Jan. 31.
On Feb. 7, a woman called the sheriff’s office to report her son missing. The man lives on a trailer on her property and hadn’t been seen since jan. 31, when he left, but told her he would be back to watch the Super Bowl Feb. 2.
No one has seen or heard from him since.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies learned the missing man uses an aluminum rowboat to get to the north end of Lake Kathleen, located off Southeast 128th Avenue in the Renton Highlands. Once across the lake, the man secures the boat and continues on foot or uses the Metro Transit System.
The missing man’s mother told deputies the boat was not on their property, but also not where he usually parks it on the other side of the lake.
The man is unemployed and does not have a cell phone. None of his friends have seen or heard from him either since one friend saw him in the boat Jan. 31, rowing southbound on the lake.
The King County Sheriff’s Marine/Dive unit located the boat on the west side of the lake. The row boat was found with the missing person’s back pack inside. No Life Jackets were found.
One oar was also found on the east side of the lake, while the boat was located on the west side.
The Marine Unit deputies initially called off the search due to a significant amount of ice still on the lake, but deputies are checking conditions daily and planned to resume the search in the water when conditions allow.