Body Recovered from 50 Feet of Water with ROV Borrowed from Burleigh County

A VideoRay Pro 4 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) recovered the body of Gabrielle Fisher from Pactola Reservoir in South Dakota on Monday. After a 4 hour search, the Pro 4 located her body in approximately 50 feet of water near the spot where Fisher was knocked into the water after a jet ski hit her boat on Friday night. 

Search crews from the Pennington County Search & Rescue (SAR) team searched for her body all weekend using divers and side scan sonar. However, the divers had little to no visibility due to the amount of silt in the water, often having less than 3 feet of visibility. After two days of unsuccessful searching, Pennington County SAR called Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota to borrow their VideoRay Pro 4. Once the ROV arrived, they were able to locate the body after shortly before search efforts were to be called off on Monday night.

“[The ROV] saved divers a lot time,” said Brian Meiers from the Pennington County SAR team. The ROV recovered Fisher’s body from a search area that had not been covered by the divers. Another member of the team was quoted as saying “we absolutely could not have found her body without the ROV.”

The Pennington SAR team was familiar with VideoRay ROVs, thanks to a recent demo conducted by Tom Crossmon. Burleigh County sent their ROV and three members of their Dive Rescue and Recovery team to Rapid City to conduct the search.

Click Continue Reading for more news coverage and video from the Fisher rescue.

VideoRay extends our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Gabrielle Fisher.