Authorities search for man who jumped in Sacramento River from disabled houseboat
Rescue efforts have continued for a man reported missing after jumping into the Sacramento River on Wednesday night.
The Sacramento Fire Department first reported in social media posts around 9 p.m. that crews responded to a water rescue near West Elverta Road and Garden Highway, less than a mile north of Sacramento International Airport.
Authorities determined a man had “made an attempt to swim to shore from a disabled houseboat” and remained unaccounted for as search efforts were suspended for the night, the department said in an update just before 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office has been using its boating division since Thursday to try to find the missing man, Ronald Milton Belke Jr. of Sacramento, and will continue searching for him.
About 8 p.m. Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting Belke was missing and was last seen swimming in the Sacramento River near the 10000 block of Garden Highway in Pleasant Grove.
Belke, 58, was last seen in the river about 100 yards south of Simard’s Boat Dock about two hours earlier swimming from a boat toward the dock, according to a sheriff’s news release issued Thursday afternoon.
A sheriff’s deputy was told that Belke and another person, whose name was not released, were in a boat Belke had just purchased. Sheriff’s officials said the boat had mechanical problems, so Belke decided to swim back to the dock to seek help getting the boat back to shore.
The other person was inside the boat when he spotted Belke jump into the river and start swimming. Belke was about three-quarters of the way to the boat dock when the other person returned to working on the mechanical problems, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The other person in the boat told deputies that Belke did not appear to be in any distress while swimming and had not been drinking any alcohol before jumping in the river.
The Sacramento and Yolo sheriff’s offices have offered to help with the search Sunday if Belke has not been found by then. Sutter sheriff’s officials said Thursday that Belke’s disappearance was being investigated as a missing person case.
Investigators asked anyone with information about Belke’s whereabouts to call the Sutter Sheriff’s Office at 530-822-7317.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 7:46 AM.
