'Body' in Lake Washington Disappears

Reports of a possible body found in Lake Washington remain unconfirmed Thursday afternoon, according to Seattle Police.

Seattle Police Department spokesperson Jeff Kappel said at around 8:37 p.m., boaters were rowing under the Montlake Bridge when they struck an object in the water. According to police, the object appeared to be a tarp possibly with a blanket inside. 

As the boaters began to tow the tarp to the Pocock Rowing Center at 3320 Fuhrman Avenue East when an unknown object came out of the tarp. The boaters said the unknown object was possibly a human body, but lost sight of the object and continued on to the rowing center and called 911.

"We had an unknown object in the water," Kappel said. "The search was based entirely on what the boaters said they thought they had bumped in to."

The search appears to have been called off. The Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol and King County Guardian One conducted a search of the area until 11 p.m. last night and began searching again in the morning, but did not locate an object that matched the boater's description.

Mercer Island Marine Unit dive teams, who sometimes aid marine search-and-rescue operations in Lake Washington, were not called to help. Instead, MIPD officers Greg Levinson and Jim Robarge were at the public boat launch this morning in scuba-diving gear, preparing to look for a jettisoned anchor that may cause a hazard to marine traffic.

"We heard the search had been canceled," Robarge said.