The “miracle” happened on the Friday before Labor Day, 2012. Becky, her husband, three kids and a family friend went to play on Willard Bay. It began as the perfect day, but late in the afternoon a storm came out of the southeast. Everyone headed for the marina, but one boat didn’t make it.
Mark Mangelson was at the wheel of the Cobalt speedboat, “We believe the two waves that sunk us were probably 7 to 8 feet because they were a good foot that came up over the bow.” Mark remembers the boat swamping and going down in a minute.
In that minute they grabbed life vests, cushions and wake boards — anything they could get their hands on.
18-year old Lauren McMullin remembers, “Erik (Mangelson) actually saved the cell phones. He saved mine and he was calling 911. He was holding it above the water and it was working! Then the call failed and then waves hit him.” The cell phones where gone and with them, the brief, faint hope of rescue.
Once in the water, Becky said there was never a question of waiting for help to come to them, “The focus was just get to shore.”
Quickly, it became obvious that they would have to split into two groups. The youngest of the family, 11-year old Matt, just couldn’t keep up. So the parents stayed with Matt and the three teenagers, Amanda, Erik and Lauren, were sent ahead with the admonition to stick together.
Becky said, “If you’re on your own, you kind of let down and you let fear and you let other things get you down. But when you’re working for someone else, when you’re working for family, you’re trying to help your son get to shore, you’re not going to stop and you’re not going to quit. And you’re not going to let them quit either.”
Swimming into the night and the storms, that counsel would be proven over and over.
“We all got tired at different stages,” said Lauren. Amanda added, “And we each kind of lifted each other up and helped each other.” Erik agreed, “We stayed in our groups and that’s what helped us because our groups pushed through.”
Once they got to the rock wall on the east side of the bay, Erik was having trouble standing. Hypothermia had set in. So, for the first time, they split up. Lauren stayed with Erik while Amanda went up and over the wall, through a canal and then up the embankment to I-15.
It was approaching midnight and raining hard. Amanda, standing on the shoulder of the interstate still in her swimsuit and life vest, jumped and waved her arms. A Highway Patrolman heading north saw her, cut through the median and came back to where she’s standing. After listening to her incredible story, the trooper sounded the alarm that brought search teams and a helicopter to the bay.
Still, Matt and his parents would not be found until they, too, made it to the eastern shore around 1:00 a.m. They had been in the water for more than 10 hours.
As rescuers arrived at their location, they expressed shock. One rescuer cried. He’d assumed that they’d died in the bay.
The family readily admits mistakes were made that day, but once in the water they did what they had to do to survive.
Becky said, “We didn’t do everything right, but we did enough right. Being prepared, having those life vests on and those flotations, without that we wouldn’t have made it. We absolutely would not have made it.”
Mark said, “We believe in God. We started with a prayer for safety. We believed that we would be safe. I don’t think that at any point we thought we were going to die.
“Now, Matt asked us a few times, ‘are we going to die?”
Becky replied, “Yes, we are going to die, but not today.”
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