Kayaker vanished on fishing trip with friends. He was found dead days later, CA cops say
A man who vanished while on a fishing trip with friends has been found dead, California authorities said.
After fishing during the day, Clinton Yoshio Koga, 39, of Brentwood, kayaked into Tomales Bay at around 6:10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, “from the Lawson’s Landing campground to retrieve a crabbing cage,” the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said in a Feb. 2 Facebook post.
About 20 minutes after Koga entered the water, a friend noticed they could no longer see Koga’s kayak from shore, the sheriff’s office said.
A friend called the sheriff’s office to report Koga missing, “while his other friends searched the bay waters for him,” deputies said.
Despite an “extensive search” involving multiple agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the sheriff’s office said Koga was not found and “search efforts were suspended.”
A volunteer aquatic search group, California Recovery Divers, began looking in the bay for Koga the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 1, the sheriff’s office said.
The group found his body at around 4:15 p.m., “approximately 100 yards from the shore of Lawson’s Landing,” deputies said.
California Recovery Divers said in a Facebook post that it was “honored to recover Clinton Koga from Tomales Bay,” adding that the tides made it difficult.
“Many thanks to our volunteers for bringing Clinton home,” the post said.
Koga was taken to shore at the Lawson’s Landing campground, and paramedics confirmed he had died, according to the sheriff’s office.
After learning of Koga’s death, a friend wrote on Facebook that he was “in complete shock.
“Thank you so much Koga for all the laughs and amazing memories,” the friend wrote. “I will always miss you and I will try to pick up the pieces and just keep going.”
Koga’s cause and manner of death will be determined by the sheriff’s office and coroner, deputies said.
Lawson’s Landing is located in Dillon Beach, about 100 miles southwest of Sacramento.
This story was originally published February 3, 2023 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Kayaker vanished on fishing trip with friends. He was found dead days later, CA cops say."
