Daily Press News Editor
MARBLE — A kayak trip down Anthracite Creek turned deadly when a 34-year-old Golden, Colo. man drowned beneath a logjam Sunday.
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Besecker was not handling the investigation and did not know how the kayak had come to turn over, or for how long Locke was trapped, in part because a key witness was too devastated to give a statement Sunday.
“The father was with the victim,” Besecker said. “He was so distraught that it wasn’t reasonable to approach him at that point for information.”
Other witnesses were being interviewed Tuesday. Besecker did not know how, or if, they were connected to the Locke party.
He said Locke was likely dead at the scene, although emergency medical personnel and an ambulance responded. Locke’s body was taken to Montrose for a post-mortem examination, which had not been completed Tuesday afternoon.
“All indications are the drowning was accidental,” Besecker said. “We have no suspicions of otherwise.”
Locke’s death marks the second kayaking accident in the region over the holiday weekend. According to the Associated Press, Adam Barron, 30, of Boulder has been missing since his kayak overturned Saturday in La Plata County’s Vallecito Creek. The search was suspended and Barron is feared dead. (See related story page B4).
Speaking in general terms, Besecker urged water sports enthusiasts to be wary of the potential dangers in Colorado’s creeks and rivers.
“There’s things that are obvious in swift waters. You’ve got ‘strainers’ — anything from a fence to a downed tree, to eddies,” he said. “There’s also undertows, which go in different directions. In more shallow depths, there are inherent dangers we wouldn’t necessarily think about.
“There’s rocks if you become inverted. Even with a helmet on, you could be at risk of serious, or even fatal head injuries.”
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