PLACER COUNTY, CA SHERIFF’S OFFICE PRESS RELEASE:

This weekend, until Tuesday, the family of a young college student who went missing in June, 2016, while paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe has hired a company to search the deep water for his body.

Ma’s parents, pictured here last summer as they watched the search for their son Marc, 20, is using a search and recovery company from Black River Falls, WI, called “Bruce’s Legacy.”

The vessel is equipped with a tow-behind sonar “fish” and has the ability to scan to 700-feet deep.

Marc Ma is presumed drowned near the West Shore Café. PCSO and several additional agencies, including a private firm, searched for Ma for several days after his disappearance. He was paddle boarding with a group of friends from University of Nevada, Reno, where he was a football player. He was from Hawaii and a very strong swimmer, but he wasn’t used to Lake Tahoe’s cold water and he wasn’t wearing a personal flotation device. As is common on Lake Tahoe, winds picked up very quickly that afternoon, with 3-5 foot swells and whitecaps. His friends were saved by a boat crew from a nearby marina.

Marc’s father, Michael, asked that we mention one very important thing: always wear a personal flotation device. If Marc had been wearing one, the Ma family would not be searching for their son’s body.