Investigation into Jago Bay death continues

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JAGO BAY – Investigators are working to discover the reasons for an Orangevale man's death this weekend.


A man's body had been discovered Saturday morning on the Jago Bay community beach, as Lake County News reported Sunday.


Captain Jim Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office on Monday identified the man as 52-year-old Joel Christian Hansen.


The cause of Hansen's death, he added, does not appear to be due to foul play.


Bauman reported that sheriff's deputies and Lake County Fire Protection District rescue personnel were dispatched to the Jago Bay beach area, off of Anderson Road in Lower Lake, at about 11 a.m. Saturday on a reported drowning. Deputies responded from both land and water.


When deputies arrived at the scene, they were led to the beach where Hansen's body was lying at the water's edge. By that time, fire personnel had already arrived and determined Hansen to be deceased, Bauman said.


Bauman said Hansen’s fiancée, Stephanie Dressler of Orangedale, told deputies she and Hansen had gone to the beach the previous day at about 1 p.m.


When Dressler left the beach two hours later, she could not find Hansen but was not concerned as she assumed he had gone out on a boat with a friend, said Bauman. The following morning, she awoke and Hansen had still not returned to their summer home.


Dressler started asking friends and relatives in the area if they had seen Hansen but she soon learned she had apparently been the last one to see him alive the previous day, Bauman reported. They began looking for Hansen and when a relative went down to check the beach, she found Hansen face down in the water.


Hansen was pulled ashore by the relative and when others responded to her yells for help, the call to 911 was made, Bauman said.


A friend of Hansen’s from the east Bay Area told deputies that he and the Hansen family were longtime owners of the vacation homes along the Jago Bay beach. Bauman said the man told deputies that friends and family of the Hansens' were “partying heavily” the previous night.


Bauman said the man went on to tell deputies that in the morning, he heard friends and relatives calling for Hansen and a short time later, he heard Hansen’s cousin yelling for help from the beach. He responded to the beach and helped the cousin pull Hansen from the water.


Due to the obscure circumstances of Hansen’s death, sheriff’s detectives were called to the scene. Bauman said the exact cause of death is pending further investigation.


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