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PAGE, Ariz. — Police are investigating the drowning of two women who were found in Lake Powell.
The body of one was pulled out of the Lake Wendesday and the second was found Thursday.
Merve Tokel was found Wednesday and Betul Eryildirim was found Thursday. The two women, both 21 and from Turkey, were working for the summer for the company that runs the concession stand at Bullfrog Marina. They were living in Bullfrog for the summer.
On Wednesday, about 3:45 p.m., the body of Tokel was spotted by a boater; the body was floating face down in the water near a popular swim beach in Croppy Cove near the Bullfrog Marina.
Divers located the body of Eryildirim Thursday, about 6:30 p.m., in about 30 feet of water near the area where the first girl was found yesterday.
The woman and her friend had told friends they were leaving to go to the beach about 3 p.m. and return at 6 p.m., said Kane County Sheriff's Sgt. Alan Alldredge.
"At this point, no foul play is expected," he said. "But investigators are treating the incident as a homicide until it can be ruled out."
Kane County Sheriff's deputies, a dive team from the U.S. National Park Service and helicopter from the Utah Department of Public Safety were searching the lake Thursday for the second woman.
Alldredge did not immediately know Thursday whether the victim had an additional signs of trauma on her body when she was pulled from the water, or whether she and the other woman were strong swimmers or not.
