Police divers practice at Lake Barcroft

Fairfax County police officers in the underwater search and recovery unit were at Lake Barcroft yesterday – but no one drowned.

The Lake Barcroft Association had asked the unit to conduct a training class for junior lifeguards.

Since the dive team was bringing their marine patrol boat and other equipment to the lake, they also scheduled a training exercise on body recovery tools and procedures.

The dive team uses side scan sonar and a crab pot to pinpoint the location of a body in a river or lake. The body is usually about 100 feet from where it was last seen, said Master Police Officer Timothy Judd.

During the exercise, the trainees wore dry suits and blackout diving masks to simulate murky conditions with no visibility.

The unit recovers about nine underwater bodies a year throughout Fairfax County, said 2nd Lt. Matthew Luik. So far this year, there haven’t been any.

Body recovery operations are always considered crime scenes until it’s determined the victim died from an accident or natural causes. Any time there’s a suspicious death, the body is brought to a hospital for an autopsy.

It’s been several years since the unit recovered a homicide victim under water, said Judd. Most of the time, it’s a heart attack or alcohol-related drowning. The last time a body was recovered at Lake Barcroft was about four years ago.

In addition to bodies, the unit also searches for weapons used in a crime and evidence, Judd said. Sometimes they’ve found other interesting things, such as an anchor from the 1890s.

The underwater search and recovery unit is based at the Operations Support Bureau on Woodburn Road in Annandale.