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Witness recalls when man fell into Woods Canyon Lake
COCONINO COUNTY, Ariz. - A man died after falling through the ice in Woods Canyon Lake in Coconino County – a recreational area northeast of Payson.
The incident happened on Dec. 22 around 3:15 p.m. and the Coconino County Sheriff's Office confirmed that it did recover a body just after 10 a.m. on Dec. 23 with the assistance of the Gila County dive team.
CCSO says the victim was a 26-year-old man, but didn't release his name. The sheriff's office previously said the victim was an ASU student, but later wouldn't confirm that.
Two others fell through the ice, but were able to make it out of the water safely.
"No further information is available currently. The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Gila County Sheriff’s Office Dive team and the Forest Lakes Fire Department, Department of Public Safety Air rescue and the United States Forest Service for their assistance in this incident. The Sheriff’s Office would like to remind recreators and visitors to use extreme caution and avoid frozen waterways," the Coconino County Sheriff's Office said.
This isn’t the first time something tragic like this has happened in this area.
In December 2022, three people died at Woods Canyon Lake after walking on the ice and falling into the water.
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Man's body pulled from Woods Canyon Lake
‘Avoid going out on the ice altogether’
"If you see the pictures that came out, that was a partially frozen lake. That lake had not completely frozen over. So the thickness of that ice couldn’t have been good. You also compound it when you have more than one person standing in one spot. It just creates a bigger weight issue. Our advice is just to avoid going out on the ice altogether," said CCSO spokesperson Jon Paxton.
This is especially true with the warm winter weather the high country has experienced.
Investigators believe that this was an accident, but the medical examiner will give the official cause of death.
‘Everyone was crying and shouting’
Witnesses say families were enjoying the afternoon at the lake when things quickly took a turn.
"It was just going from like heaven to hell for us," a witness named Reza Ebrahimi said.
He took his family up north to eat lunch where the iced over lake met the rocks when they witnessed the tragedy two days before Christmas.
"It was like five or 10 minutes they were walking on the ice, and we heard some splashes," Ebrahimi remembered.
A family of eight was taking photos on the shaded part of the lake when the thin ice broke. It was followed by laughter, which quickly changed.
"After 15 or 20 seconds, we understood that the guy was drowning, then everyone was crying and shouting," Ebrahimi said. "It was a chaotic situation."
Witnesses tried to grab anything they could to save him.
"They were throwing life jackets at him, but he couldn't catch the life jackets. We tried to get the branch of a tree, but it wasn't successful," he said.
Two other men also fell in while trying to save him. That’s when Ebrahimi and his family drove down the road to find a signal and call 9-1-1.
"Went up the hill and found a very long three inch pipe, and then, with the loop of the belt around it, and then threw it into the water," Ebrahimi said.
They were able to safely pull the other two people out of the lake. It was too late for the 26-year-old man.
"Honestly, I couldn't sleep last night," Ebrahimi said. "It was so bad to experience and witness such a tragedy."
Ebrahimi says this family wasn’t the only ones walking on the thin ice. He and his eight-year-old daughter had stepped on it, but he noticed it cracking pretty easily, saying it was really thin.