Lake Tahoe's depths may hold many dead bodies

Sgt. Pete Van Arnum recalled hearing tales of Mafia members dumping bodies in Lake Tahoe back in the 1950s.

"That may or may not be true, but we can't be sure because we can't go down that far," said Van Arnum, a member of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department and a former coroner.

What, or who, Lake Tahoe holds in its average depth of 1,000 feet is a mystery, except for those who have lost family or friends in drownings, boating accidents or other mishaps. But the conditions within the second-deepest lake in the United States keeps the mystery unanswerable.

The science behind why the lake hides its victims has Friday's discovery of a body in shallow waters near Glenbrook perplexing some.

"Usually, a person who goes into the lake, they don't come back up," said Mike McFarlane of McFarlane Mortuary.

"I just never, never have seen anyone floating," he added. "They usually go down, and that's it."

An autopsy on the unidentified woman's body indicated no immediate cause of death, said Lt. Mike Biaggini of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department.

The cause of death will have to be determined by microscopic and toxicology tests, Biaggini said. DNA tests and dental records could be used to identify the woman.

"We've had a number of cases over the years where drowning victims, or apparent drowning victims, never surfaced again," said El Dorado county Sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell. "They're just gone."

An incident last summer involved a man from India, whose friends reported seeing him drown in water 700 feet deep after he fell into the water off a flotation device. He was wearing a life vest, which was later found floating by itself. The case was filed as a missing person in the event his body ever surfaces.

A number of factors contribute to the phenomenon, according to Dr. Anton Sohn, chairman of the pathology department at the University of Nevada, Reno.

When people drown, for instance, their lungs fill with water, dropping them into the depths of the lake.

Death brings decomposition where bacteria consumes bodily flesh at some pace. During that process gases such as methane, nitrogen and oxygen are produced, but the type of gases formed depend on the type of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, Sohn said.

The gases would allow a body to rise "like a balloon. The body buoys up to the top," Sohn said.

With the lake's frigid temperatures bodies don't decompose. Gases don't form. Bodies stay submerged.

Lake Tahoe has a constant temperature of 39 degrees between the depths of 600 to 700 feet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It's surface temperature varies by season. In August and September the surface temperature runs between 65 to 70 degrees. During winter, the surface temperature varies between 40 and 50 degrees.

On Friday, the temperature in Lake Tahoe was 39 degrees while the surface temperature was 44, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The refrigerator at McFarlane Mortuary where bodies are kept to fight off decomposition is 34 degrees, McFarlane said.

Sohn added optimal temperatures for bacteria growth in laboratories is about 100 degrees. Cut that temperature in half and bacteria doesn't thrive, he said.

Van Arnum remembers the body of Lee Taylor who died trying to break the water speed record on Lake Tahoe in November 1980. While taking a test run on the lake, Taylor's boat hit a wake and crashed. Using a camera to spot the cockpit, Taylor's body, still strapped in, was pulled from the lake a few weeks after the accident, Van Arnum recalled.

Taylor's body was "perfectly preserved," he said.

Adding to the trouble to retrieving bodies from the depths of the lake is the limited depth divers can reach because of the lake's altitude.

At sea level, divers can reach depths of 130 feet, but at Lake Tahoe the maximum depth is 90 feet before a diver hits a dangerous, bends-inducing level.

Add currents, the frequency that the water "turns over" and the various densities of people, and bodies can drop farther.

When fish and other lake carnivores nibble on bodies, gases from within the tissue are released, making the bodies denser, Sohn said.

- Tahoe Daily Tribune staff writer Amanda Fehd contributed to this report.