Boating accidents

Man found dead in Pyramid Lake is 52-year-old from West Covina


By Jason Henry, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

and Ruby Gonzales, San Gabriel Valley Tribune


Posted: 06/30/14, 10:09 AM PDT|
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Coroner’s officials on Monday identified the man whose body was found in Pyramid Lake as a West Covina resident while divers continue searching for a second man.

The cause of death hasn’t been determined for 52-year-old Rick Tanovan, according to Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. He said an autopsy is pending. But Winter said the death was reported to the coroner as a possible drowning.

Tanovan’s family described him as a hard working business owner who spent six days a week at his automotive shop in Studio City.




“We didn’t expect this,” said his mourning wife Tammy Tanovan. “He goes fishing every other Sunday, we don’t know how this could happen — it was so sudden.

“It was so sudden,” she repeated before sobbing. Tanovan and his family moved to West Covina in 2001. He had two teenage daughters, 14 and 17-years-old. His oldest Erika just graduated from West Covina High School.

“As a father, he’d be strict, he always wanted to protect his little girls,” his oldest daughter said. “He worked a lot, we’d see him in the mornings when he dropped me and my sister off at school — every day.”




The 52-year-old mechanic owned Tanovan Automotive in Studio City for the last 20 years. Erika described her father as always having a fascination with cars.

The shop owner was very social — he knew all of the families’ neighbors — and many of his customers considered him a friend.

Though he worked most days, Tanovan never worked on Sundays, Erika Tanovan said.

“Sundays would be his relaxing day, where he would go fishing or stay home and work on the garden,” she said.

Tanovan’s body was discovered around 11:20 a.m. Sunday at the lake in Gorman.




A Parks Bureau deputy was flagged down by a man on a jet ski who reported seeing something suspicious in the south part of the lake, near Chumash Island.

Lt. Steve Jauch of the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said the jet skier saw the bow of the boat sticking out of the water.

Deputies saw a man under the water a short distance away. They pulled him out, did CPR but couldn’t revive him..

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jauch said a cursory examination of the body showed no physical trauma.

“There’s no obvious signs of foul play,” he said.




Until the autopsy is conducted, investigators are calling it a possible drowning.

There was no damage to the boat which Jauch described as between 18 to 20 feet long.

Tanovan apparently wasn’t alone when he went to Pyramid Lake.

“We got information he was accompanied to the lake by a second male,” Jauch said.

He added the information came from a family or friend of Tanovan.

Divers with the sheriff’s Emergency Services Detail looked for the second man on Sunday. They resumed the search around 8 a.m. Monday.




Homicide detectives are handling the investigation. The sheriff’s Homicide Bureau is called in whenever there is a death or disappearance as result of a boating accident or an incident on the waters within Los Angeles County.