BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A body found on Lake Whatcom over the weekend is believed to have been a suicide.
Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Deb Slater says someone reported finding the body in a raft near North Shore Drive around 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 6.
Slater says the victim was a man in his early twenties who had been listed as missing out of Snohomish County for two days. Investigators are treating the death as a suicide after they found a single gunshot wound to the man’s head and recovered a firearm.
His body had significant head injuries, which made the witness initially think they had been hit by a boat. A minor hit-and-run boating crash collision had been reported about half an hour earlier, but responding law enforcement agencies determined that the two incidents were unrelated.
An investigation into the boating collision is ongoing.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicide/mental health, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Hotline.