August 4, 2026 9:40 a.m. 

Covering coastal Douglas County:

A Sandy, Oregon man drowned Saturday in Tahkenitch Lake, near Gardiner.

A Douglas County Sheriff’s Office report said at 11:40 a.m. 81-year-old Mac Lloyd Lynn Hayes and his son were staying on a boat house on the lake. Hayes wanted to fill-up barrels with air to put under the boat house to keep it afloat. The son suggested they hire someone to do it, due to Hayes’s age. Hayes declined and had an air compressor fixed up in a way where it gave him oxygen under water. The man went under water to put the barrels under the house but never came up.

A short time later, the son found the breathing apparatus free floating in the lake, but Hayes was nowhere to be found, so the son called 911. Hayes was found quickly by the DCSO Dive Team, under the house deceased. The Douglas County Medical Examiner’s Office was notified.