TUOLUMNE COUNTY, Calif. —

An employee with the Turlock Irrigation District drowned over the weekend at the Don Pedro Reservoir, officials said Monday.

The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office said its deputies went to the lake near Moccasin Point around 11:37 a.m. Sunday for a report of a drowning. There, they had learned that 62-year-old Mitchell Rogers had gone under the water while swimming a rope out to a drifting boat, but he never resurfaced.

Deputies spoke with witnesses who showed them where Rogers was last seen, the sheriff's office said. Those witnesses said Rogers was trying to retrieve an unattended boat drifting in the bay when he went underwater.

The sheriff's office said its boating unit searched the area and found Rogers' body underwater after a search that lasted more than

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