On a clear autumn day, 48-year-old Timothy Borger embarked on what should have been a routine scuba diving training exercise in the waters of Lake Pleasant Regional Park in Peoria, Arizona. It was October 16, 2010, and Borger, along with his diving group, descended into the depths near the site of the Old Waddell Dam. At approximately 56 feet below the surface, something went wrong. Borger veered off course, becoming separated from his companions.
He never resurfaced, vanishing into the lake's murky depths.
The immediate aftermath of Timothy Borger's disappearance launched an extensive search and recovery effort by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Dive Team. For years, they conducted over 60 missions in an attempt to locate him. The area where he went missing, the submerged Old Waddell Dam, presents extreme challenges for divers. The original dam, built in the 1920s, was replaced by a new dam in the 1980s and the old structure was breached with dynamite to allow water to flow through as the lake expanded. This created a hazardous underwater environment akin to a collapsed building, with massive pieces of concrete, rebar, old infrastructure, and other debris littering the lakebed at depths exceeding 250 feet. Search teams utilized underwater rovers and even cadaver dogs, which were able to detect his scent rising to the surface in the years following his disappearance, yet Borger remained elusive.
Despite the relentless efforts of law enforcement and the heartache of his family, Timothy Borger's body has never been recovered. Authorities believe he likely became trapped within one of the many deep and inaccessible voids created by the dam's debris. Over time, the continuous shifting of silt has likely covered any trace of him, making the chances of recovery increasingly slim. His case remains a poignant mystery, a story of a recreational outing that turned into a tragedy. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office considers him the only drowning victim in their history that they have been unable to bring home to his family, leaving his loved ones without closure. An obituary published in 2011 states that Borger drowned in the scuba diving accident.Last Seen: Oct 16, 2010
