August 26, 2017
The day that Bruce’s Legacy located Marc Ma on Lake Tahoe, last month, an Eldorado County Sheriff’s Deputy contacted us regarding the case of a missing kayaker. In addition, a friend of the family contacted us the same day. Dan Pham had left Lester Beach to begin a four-mile trip alone, to meet friends down the shore and never arrived. There was little evidence left behind. There were strong winds that morning. He had a fully loaded kayak and was never found despite heartfelt local efforts. He disappeared on June 8th. The family has been left with many questions since that day.
Beth and I, came to the South Lake Tahoe the day after our locating Markos Alvarez in Stampede Reservoir. We met with experienced Deputies G. Almos and D. Frisby. They had information regarding some dog hits as well as a possible range provided by a last cell phone ping. We were joined by Justin Brown. He has helped with several missions now and originated from our Pyramid Lake NV recovery, of 2 of his friends.
The area in this portion of Lake Tahoe drops very quickly in a short distance with variable rocky cliffs and rock formations with crevices. We decided our Outland ROV would be the best tool for this geography and deployed in the morning. As it was a Saturday, there was large amounts of boat traffic, but we were able to search. We located Dan in 250‘of water in the late afternoon and contacted the Deputies. We contacted Dan’s brother Phillip to inform him. We wish all his friends and family our condolences. Great thanks to Justin Brown and Deputies Almos and Frisby. We also thank the Camp Richardson Marina for allowing us to keep the Legacy Boat on their premises.
