27-year-old ranger drowns after losing boat in high winds, Colorado sheriff says
Officials trying to reconstruct the last moments of Brendan Unitt’s life think the 27-year-old ranger had beached his patrol boat Thursday on the shore of Horsetooth Reservoir in Colorado.
Unitt, a Larimer County Natural Resources ranger, may have been planning to check boat-in campsites on the western side of the lake, said Sheriff Justin Smith in a video briefing posted on YouTube.
A radio call to rescue some boaters sent Unitt back to shore, where sheriff’s officials suspect he discovered his patrol boat had drifted away in 35 mph winds at the lake near Fort Collins.
Rangers received some broken radio traffic from Unitt, then nothing more. He never showed up to help rescue the boaters, who were assisted by other rangers, Smith said. Searchers found Unitt’s body at 3 a.m. Friday.
Unitt, who was not wearing a life jacket, had drowned, The Denver Post reported. His life jacket was found on shore about 12 feet from where searchers found his body in the water.
Smith said Unitt may have taken off his life jacket to swim after his patrol boat. The jacket would have inflated in the water, hindering his ability to recover the boat.
“We don’t know exactly how it happened, but we believe that when he took that vest off and got into the water, he himself became in distress and eventually was dragged off the shore and pulled under, and it was at that point that he lost his life,” Smith saidin the video.
Ken Brink, patrol captain for the Larimer County Department of Natural Resources, said in the video that Unitt died serving the public.
“That night, he was looking out for other people and trying to save people’s lives when he unfortunately lost his life,” Brink said.
Before becoming a ranger six months ago, Unitt served in the Marines, according to Brink.
Unitt’s supervisor, Corporal Trevor Knight, described him as “selfless” and said he had “a great sense of humor” in the video.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 11:58 AM with the headline "27-year-old ranger drowns after losing boat in high winds, Colorado sheriff says."