Tragedy struck a Minnesota man identified as Matthew Brust Burnsville as he drowned after he jumped off a boat in a bid to help his girlfriend struggling in the water, authorities said.
36 years old Matthew Brust, took dover in after his girlfriend, Saturday night after the woman fell overboard on Crystal Lake in Burnsville, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook news release.
‘She was able to climb back into the boat, however he struggled in the water as the boat drifted away from him,’ the release stated.
‘He went under water and did not resurface.’
The sheriff’s office dive team searched for Brust, a Burnsville resident, for several hours. They were able to recover his body at about 11:25 that night, according to the release.
‘I saw the officers pulled in, two patrol cars, there was just panic,’ said Mark Thorson, who was removing weeds from Crystal Lake on Saturday according to KSTP.
‘I knew something wasn’t right,’ the man added.
The identity of the girlfriend was not given. It remained unclear whether the couple were donning life jackets at the time of the incident. The case remains under investigation.