Deputies Hunt for Missing Man

Sheriff’s deputies Friday continued to look for a probationer whose possible drowning in a south Orange County lake caused a massive search and rescue effort the night before, officials said.

Neighbors said they last saw Donald Brown, 54, fishing from a skiff near his Lake Forest home Thursday afternoon, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

Earlier, officers had tried to arrest Brown at his home on suspicion of violating his probation, Amormino said.

But Brown’s neighbors believed he had drowned and called the Fire Department, Amormino said. Neighbors told police they had seen him on the lake, but when they looked again his boat was empty.

Divers searched the 12-foot waters of Lake II, near Lake Forest Drive and Jeronimo Road, for more than four hours Thursday night but found no body, Amormino said. Deputies also patrolled the lake’s perimeter while a helicopter hovered with searchlights on. Firefighters and an ambulance stood by.

Deputies will continue to search for Brown in the neighborhood, Amormino said Friday.

“We’re still investigating this as a possible drowning,” he said, “but there’s a possibility that he fell out and swam to shore.”

A spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department declined to say why Brown was on probation, citing confidentiality laws.