Authorities in Florida have found the bodies of two men who went missing in a lake after a boating accident near Legoland over the weekend.
Orlando Ortiz, 30, of Winter Haven, and Jeffrey Marrero, 34, of Auburndale, were found in Lake Eloise about 150 yards away from each other, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Both men had jumped into the water on Saturday afternoon to rescue 38-year-old Velcky Velazques, Ortiz’s girlfriend, who had fallen in while trying to secure the anchor to the boat. A 10-year-old girl who was still on the boat called 911 around 4:15 p.m. She and an 8-year-old girl, both Marrero’s children, were rescued after the boat drifted away.
Neither man was a strong swimmer and they both sank. The medical examiner determined they drowned and ruled their deaths accidental on Tuesday morning.
The lake is adjacent to Legoland, a theme park and resort in Winter Haven, about 50 miles east of Tampa.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the water was particularly rough on Saturday because of high winds. He added that the boaters were inexperienced and had rented their watercraft, a 16-foot Tahoe ski boat, earlier that day to celebrate Velazques and Ortiz’s one-year anniversary.
“Once again, when you get into the water and the wind is blowing 20 mph and it’s choppy, it’s not a failure on the boat,” the sheriff said Monday. “The only question that we have is why wasn’t the rope already secured onto the boat,” he asked, in reference to why Velazques jumped into the water in the first place.
In a statement, Legoland said the park was not connected to the incident apart from letting officials use of their boardwalk as a command center and their dock to park the rented boat after rescuing Marrero’s daughters.