WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. -- A searcher says the body of a missing swimmer presumed drowned in Lake Whatcom may never float to the surface.

Arlington-based Submerged Recovery and Inspection Services owner Craig Thorngren Wednesday used a sophisticated underwater camera and sonar unit to search the bottom of the lake for David Johnston’s body.



Thorngren said he’s confident he didn’t miss anything in that huge area.



He says the water is deep enough that the pressure on the lake bed is too great for a human body that naturally becomes buoyant over time to rise to the surface.

Forty-year-old Johnston disappeared under the water while swimming Sunday.