Account
Jan 22, 2015
Apr 11, 2024
Francis
Wisnovsky
88
44
75 inches
200 lbs
White / Caucasian
Male
On a summer afternoon in southern Oregon, on July 29, 1980, a 44-year-old man named Francis Joseph Wisnovsky was working at Lost Creek Lake in Trail. It was around 3:15 p.m. when he entered the water. An employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, his task that day was a diving operation to work on the cables for a boat dock. Tragically, after submerging into the lake, he never came back to the surface. The immediate belief was that Mr. Wisnovsky had drowned while performing his duties deep beneath the water's surface, at an estimated depth of about one hundred and fifty feet. In the wake of his disappearance, extensive and prolonged search efforts were launched to find him. These operations were thorough, involving not only human divers who scoured the underwater environment but also the use of advanced technology for the time, including remote-controlled submarines, to search the depths of Lost Creek Lake. Despite the comprehensive nature of these searches, no trace of Francis Wisnovsky was ever found. His body was not recovered from the lake, leaving his family and community without the closure of a final resting place. At the time he went missing, he was not only a government employee but also the owner and operator of the Valley View Vineyard. The case remains a sorrowful mystery, a presumed drowning where the beautiful but vast expanse of a lake holds its secrets. The official investigation concluded that he was lost in the lake that day, but without a recovery, the precise circumstances of his final moments remain unknown.
Jul 29, 1980
Trail
Oregon
Jackson County
97541
No
23751
Jackson County Sheriff's Office
Central Point
Oregon
Jackson County
97502
5179 Crater Lake Highway, Oregon
5417746800
County
Law Enforcement
80-7723
Jackson County Sheriff's Office
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
06/03/2026
