Bodies Of Crabbers May Have Been Found

Two bodies believed to be those of men overdue from a crabbing trip were found Sunday.

Autopsies are scheduled for today, the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said.

The missing crabbers were identified as Gary Bowman, 28, and Lawrence Lahti, 32, both of Marysville, Wash.

The men left Saturday in a 12-foot skiff from Mukilteo, 24 miles north of Seattle, carrying crab pots, flares and life jackets, the Coast Guard said.

Search-and-rescue boats were dispatched when the crabbers failed to return at 8 p.m. as scheduled.

“The weather conditions out there were very good,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Shelly Freier said. “Visibility was five to 12 miles, wind was at 5 to 10 knots and seas were zero to 1 foot. The temperature was 54 degrees.”

A Coast Guard helicopter from Port Angeles, Wash., searched until 3 a.m. Sunday but found no sign of the men. The search resumed at daylight.

At 10 a.m., the Snohomish County sheriff’s office told the Coast Guard that a body fitting Bowman’s description had been found on the beach 2-1/2 miles south of Mukilteo. About two hours later, a body matching Lahti’s description was found at the south tip of nearby Whidbey Island. Both men were wearing life jackets, Freier said.

“There were no obvious signs of crime to the bodies,” she said.