It started out as a simple Thursday afternoon on the water. Leopoldo Pantoja, 57, and his wife headed out near Twin Dikes on Lake Sam Rayburn to enjoy the day. They swam into the lake a few hundred yards off a nearby island to cool off. Things took a sudden turn when their boat started drifting away from them in the open water.
Watching the boat pull further out of reach, Pantoja made a quick decision to swim after it. Open water can quickly fool even experienced swimmers, and the boat moved faster than he could kick. As Pantoja tried to close the gap, he slipped underwater and did not resurface. His wife was left in the lake alone, unable to reach him.
A civilian riding a jet ski noticed the woman stranded in the water and rode over to help. The rider pulled her out safely and brought her back to shore. While she was unharmed physically, her husband was still missing in the deep water, triggering an immediate call for emergency search teams.
First responders moved fast across Jasper County, focusing their efforts around the Twin Dikes area. Local fire departments, Texas Game Wardens, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Texas Department of Public Safety air crews joined the response. Volunteers and searchers from Texas EquuSearch came in to help cover more ground on the water.
For three days, rescue crews searched the wide stretches of Lake Sam Rayburn. Boats with sonar scanned below the surface while helicopters searched from above. Pantoja’s family and friends waited through three long days of searching, hoping for answers as teams worked through changing water conditions.
The search ended Sunday morning, August 16. At about 7:30 a.m., a member of the Lake Rayburn Volunteer Fire Department spotted Pantoja’s body in the water and recovered him. The recovery brought a solemn end to a multi-agency operation that had been running since Thursday.
The discovery brought closure to the three-day search, though his family now faces the hard reality of his loss. Relatives and friends are gathering to support one another and remember Pantoja. Neighbors and local residents across Jasper County continue to offer their support to his wife and family.
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