Update: Bodies Of Missing Boaters Found On Bottom Of Lake Eloise

WINTER HAVEN, FL — Two days after two Polk County men were reported missing on Lake Eloise in Winter Haven, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced that they have recovered the bodies of both men.

Judd said four Polk County sheriff's boats and two Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boats equipped with sonar equipment and a Seminole County Sheriff's Office boat equipped with an underwater drone spent nearly 48 hours combing the 1,156-acre lake for the bodies of Orlando Ortiz, 30, of Winter Haven and Jeffrey Marrero, 34, of Auburndale.

"It's a massive lake and we were working grid patterns all through the day and night. It was miraculous that we found them using the technology we have today," said Judd, noting it was the FWC's sonar that eventually found the two men.

Marrero's body was found at about 1:30 p.m. and Ortiz was found around 3:40 p.m.

"We're sorry we didn't find them alive but we didn't expect to," said Judd. "It's tragic. They just went out for a Saturday afternoon on the lake and it turned to tragedy. The family's distraught as you can imagine."

He said the bodies were found near the bottom of the lake about 16 feet underwater and about 300 to 400 yards off shore with about 150 feet separating them.

On Saturday afternoon, Winter Haven residents 38-year-old Velcky Velasquez and Orlando Ortiz were celebrating their one year anniversary of dating by taking a boating trip and invited their friend, Marrero, and his two young daughters, ages 8 and 10, to join them on the 16-foot Tahoe ski boat they rented for the occasion.

“They’re out having an afternoon of pleasure on the water,” said Judd, adding that the wind was blowing at about 20 miles per hour and there were 2-foot whitecaps on the lake.

He said the adults were all boating novices although they had passed a basic course to rent the boat.

The group decided to anchor in the middle of the lake and Velasquez jumped in the water with the anchor, not realizing that it wasn't attached to the boat.

“She’s just very inexperienced,” Judd said during a new conference Sunday. “So she thinks you have to get into the water, put the anchor in, and then tie it to the boat.”

When Velasquez resurfaced, police said the boat had floated away. She struggled to swim after it, and the two men jumped in to help her as the boat floated farther out of reach.

While Velasquez floated on her back, the two men, who Judd said were average swimmers, swam after the boat with the two girls inside. In the process, they were swamped by the choppy waters and drowned.

At 4:12 p.m., the older of the two girls called 911 for help. Central district deputies Glenda Eichholtz and Jonathan Munoz heard the 911 call and went to the Lake Summit boat ramp because there is no public access to Lake Eloise. When they arrived at the boat ramp, they spotted a man who was just putting his boat into the water to go fishing.

They asked for his assistance, and he took the deputies from Lake Summit through the canal to Lake Eloise.

The deputies and boat owner found Velasquez treading water a distance away from the boat. The boat with the two girls inside had blown into the weeds. Munoz got onto the boat with the girls, both of whom were wearing life jackets, and drove them to the nearby Legoland dock.