Kayaker Missing — Kayak FOUND in CRATER, Remains in OLD Fishing NET | HO!!!!

On a clear summer morning in July 2018, Anthony Rivers, an experienced kayaker and beloved member of the Lake Katusa community, set out for what should have been a routine solo paddle along the eastern edge of the lake.

He never returned. What began as a missing person case soon spiraled into an investigation marked by oddities, dead ends, and ultimately, a chilling discovery that would expose a hidden crime and bring a killer to justice.

A Routine Trip Turns Into Mystery

Friday, July 13th, 2018, dawned with mild temperatures and light winds over Lake Katusa, Louisiana. Rivers, 40, arrived at the northern shore in his blue Nissan Xterra, unloading his signature green single-seater kayak and a waterproof container with his essentials: life jacket, carbon fiber paddle, and a Canon camera.

He was last seen by two local fishermen, who watched him paddle southeast from a weathered dock near an abandoned fishing base. At 11:00 a.m., Rivers’s phone pinged a cell tower on the lake’s south side—then fell silent.

When Rivers failed to return that evening, his brother, Michael, alerted authorities. Police found his car and trailer at the launch site, dry clothes and a bottle of water inside. Search teams fanned out over the next three days, scouring the shoreline, bays, and channels. No debris, paddle, or life jacket surfaced.

Locals mentioned newly formed sinkholes and underwater pits from recent rains, but no landslides had been reported, and the theory of a sinkhole swallowing the kayak was initially dismissed.

The First Oddities

Despite Rivers’s reputation for caution and preparedness, investigators quickly encountered inconsistencies. There were no direct witnesses to his launch, save for the fishermen. Surveillance footage from the area was incomplete, and there was no evidence that Rivers had left the lake by any other means. Friends insisted he never paddled without his life jacket or waterproof bag.

After a week, the official search was suspended. The case seemed destined to join the ranks of unsolved disappearances—until nature intervened.

A Crater Reveals a Clue

On July 20th, 2018, a partial landslide struck the southern shore, three and a half miles from Rivers’s launch point. Fishermen reported the ground collapsing with a loud rumble, water turning murky, and gas bubbles surfacing. A new underwater crater—over 15 feet deep—had formed, opening a funnel-shaped depression connected to the main channel by a tunnel.

Divers searching the area made a startling find: a bright green kayak, intact and lying flat at the bottom of the crater. The mooring line was attached, cargo bungee still on deck. Inside, a sealed yellow PVC bag contained Rivers’s driver’s license, bank cards, camera, and spare batteries. The life jacket and paddle were missing.

The kayak’s pristine condition and the absence of a life jacket raised immediate suspicions. Rivers’s camera was sent for forensic analysis, and the memory card revealed photos taken between 10 and 11 a.m. on the day he vanished. Among images of the shoreline and aquatic plants, one frame stood out: a motorboat moored at the abandoned fishing base, a man in dark clothing visible on the dock.

The Net Tightens

The base had been closed for years, its owner, Gerald M. Sawyer, a known poacher with a criminal record. The police noted the motorboat’s presence but lacked direct evidence linking Sawyer to Rivers’s disappearance. The search for Rivers’s body continued, but yielded nothing. The case was left open, with only the haunting images from the camera and the mystery of the kayak in the crater.

Over a year later, on August 27th, 2019, a water resources inspector reported signs of recent activity at the abandoned base: fresh footprints, a campfire, and discarded food containers. Police and Coast Guard returned, searching the decrepit warehouses. In a pile of wet fishing gear, they found a large synthetic net tangled with old anchor ropes. Inside were human bones, tightly wrapped in rope loops.

Forensic analysis determined the remains had been submerged for weeks before washing ashore and being abandoned in the net. Alongside the bones were metal carabiners, fragments of a rubberized life jacket, and a piece of plastic paddle. DNA testing confirmed the worst: the remains belonged to Anthony Rivers.

From Disappearance to Homicide

With the discovery, the case was reclassified as a murder. Investigators found a hidden cache under the warehouse floor: fuel canisters, rope, fishing hooks, and a corroded knife bearing Rivers’s DNA. Sawyer, now 62, was brought in for questioning. He denied involvement, but mounting evidence told another story.

Photos from Rivers’s camera showed Sawyer’s motorboat at the pier, and a man resembling Sawyer. Rope from the net matched coils found in Sawyer’s home. Phone records placed him at the base that morning, and the GPS tracker from his boat showed it leaving the pier at 10:55 a.m., converging with Rivers’s kayak at 11:03 a.m. Witnesses recalled seeing Sawyer’s boat behaving oddly, stationary for several minutes before returning to the base.

A Chilling Confession

Confronted with the evidence, Sawyer broke. He confessed that, on the morning of July 13th, Rivers had inadvertently photographed Sawyer unloading illegal cargo at the base. Fearing exposure, Sawyer chased Rivers in his motorboat, struck him with a paddle, and used a net to pull him underwater. He towed the body back to the base, hid it in a net, and dumped the kayak into the underwater crater, hoping it would never be found. He claimed to have discarded Rivers’s camera in the marsh, but it was never recovered.

Reconstructing the Crime

Digital forensics reconstructed Rivers’s final hours. Metadata from his camera tracked his route: launching at 9:08 a.m., photographing the motorboat at 10:42 a.m., and being intercepted by Sawyer minutes later. Hydrologists confirmed the crater existed at the time of the crime; the kayak could only have been placed there deliberately. Heavy rains had raised lake levels, masking landmarks and giving Sawyer cover.

Sawyer’s confession matched the timeline and evidence. He had acted methodically, hiding the body and kayak, destroying evidence, and lying to investigators for over a year.

Justice at Last

The trial of Gerald Sawyer began on May 5th, 2020, drawing crowds and media attention. The prosecution presented a damning case: Rivers’s DNA on Sawyer’s knife, the matching net and rope, GPS and phone records, and the incriminating photographs. Hydrologists testified that the crater could not have swallowed the kayak by accident. Fishermen described seeing Sawyer’s boat with a bundle resembling a net and dark object inside.

Sawyer’s defense claimed the death was a tragic accident, but his videotaped confession and the mountain of evidence left little doubt. On June 12th, 2020, the jury found Sawyer guilty of first-degree murder, destruction of evidence, and illegal drug trafficking. He was sentenced to life without parole.

A Family’s Grief, A Community’s Lesson

After the verdict, Michael Rivers expressed gratitude to investigators but lamented the loss of his brother—and the camera that may have captured his final moments. The case of Anthony Rivers is a stark reminder of the dangers that can lurk even in the most familiar places, and the lengths to which some will go to protect their secrets.

A kayak found in a crater, remains tangled in an old fishing net, and a trail of evidence that refused to stay buried—this is the legacy of a crime that began on a summer morning and ended with justice, hard-won, on the shores of Lake Katusa.