Two Steer Wrestlers Missing After Boating Accident

by Justin Shaw | Aug 02, 2016

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Columbia River Circuit steer wrestlers Justin Luhr and Justin Honken are among three people missing and presumed drowned as the result of a boating accident on Lake Coeur d’Alene July 30.

Deputies from the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Aug. 1 that while they are continuing their efforts to locate the missing people, they are presumed drowned.

According to the incident report, a boat with five people on board collided with another boat that reportedly had three on board at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday.

The boat with five people on it was traveling south on the lake near Threemile Point (between Stevens Point and Swede Bay) when it struck the other boat. Deputies believe that boat with the three people on it was either stationary at the time or heading northbound.

Deputies said a lot of factors play into this search, notably that the crews do not have an exact location of where the crash occurred.

“You’re kind of looking for a needle in a haystack … There are hundreds of thousands of gallons of water that we can’t see,” Lt. Stu Miller of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office told KREM-TV.

On Tuesday, a SONAR search crew took to Lake Coeur d’Alene for the second straight day looking for the bodies of Luhr, 34, of Medical Lake, Wash.; Honken, 21, of Post Falls, Idaho, and Caitlin A. Breeze, 21, of Spokane.

The five people in the other boat were all taken to Kootenai Health where they were treated and released.

At this point, investigators cannot say if the incident will result in criminal charges.

“It’s so early right now. We just have to piece together what exactly happened,” said Miller. “We’ve got a lot of work that we’re trying to muddle through right now.”

Both Luhr and Honken joined the PRCA in 2014 and were competing regionally at Columbia River Circuit rodeos.

Courtesy of PRCA