Lake Mission Viejo

A 17-year-old Lawndale boy drowned Saturday while trying to swim with a friend to an anchored raft in the middle of Lake Mission Viejo, authorities said. Lifeguards pulled Victor Brown from the water at 4:43 p.m., more than 15 minutes after his companion realized his friend had gone missing, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Kirk Summers. Paramedics and lifeguards tried to resuscitate Brown, but the youth showed no signs of a pulse or breathing, Summers said.

When she deploys to the violence of Afghanistan, Marine Lance Cpl. Sarah Hogg, 20, of Fort Worth, Texas, will remember a sunny day of food and friendship on the shore of Lake Mission Viejo. So will hundreds of other Marines from the headquarters battalion of the 1st Marine Division who attended a festive gathering Saturday hosted by a Mission Viejo group that "adopted" the battalion seven years ago. Although support groups for military units are common near bases throughout the U.S., some of the most active are those in Orange County that sponsor activities for the Marines and sailors of Camp Pendleton.

Sheriff's bloodhounds Friday located the body of Garden Grove man reported missing after co-workers found his shirt floating on Lake Mission Viejo and his shoes and socks in his car, deputies said. "All signs indicate that he has drowned," Sheriff's Sgt. Randy Benicky said, "but we don't know for sure." The death of Rosalio Najera Colima, 21, is ruled as "undetermined" after an autopsy was performed Friday, pending further examination of toxicological and microscopic evidence, Benicky said.

A Downey man who was driving under the influence of marijuana and alcohol when he killed two people in a high-speed crash was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison. Jon David Tafoya, 28, was convicted of murder Jan. 24 in the Mission Viejo crash on April 5, 2005. Tafoya had been attempting to evade Orange County sheriff's deputies as they tried to pull him over for suspected drunk driving after leaving Tortilla Flats at Lake Mission Viejo. He was driving a Chevrolet pickup about 90 mph up a hill on the wrong side of the road when he crashed head-on into a Saturn coupe, killing the driver, Eusebio Flores, 40, and his passenger, Melody Woodbridge, 22. -- David Haldane

A 36-pound male mountain lion, seen on the fringes of Mission Viejo for days, was finally captured when guards at the gate to Lake Mission Viejo saw him in the shrubbery bordering the lake's parking lot. Wildlife officers who subdued the cub with a tranquilizer dart and trundled him off to a wildlife preserve said he appeared to be 4 to 6 months old, in good health and well fed.

For some, the coots killed at Lake Mission Viejo mean food on the table. For 16-year-old Geeta Bahl and other animal lovers, the shooting of birds by a homeowners association leaves only a bad taste. Officials for the Lake Mission Viejo Homeowners Assn. say they must kill the coots because the migratory birds foul the man-made lake's water quality and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in landscape damage every year.

They began the day at the office with unblemished records, and when their shift was over Sunday, their perfection was intact. Early in the triathlon season, Mike Pigg and Michellie Jones were each four for four on the year, having won every triathlon they entered. Nothing changed after they covered the 1.5-kilometer, 38K-bike and 10K-run course that made up the Mazda Orange County Performing Arts Center Triathlon at Lake Mission Viejo.

For some, the coots killed at Lake Mission Viejo mean food on the table. For 16-year-old Geeta Bahl and other animal lovers, the shooting of birds by officials of a homeowners association only leaves a bad taste. Representatives of the Lake Mission Viejo Homeowners Assn. say they must kill the coots because the migratory birds foul the man-made lake's water and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in landscape damage every year.

Mission Viejo city officials will soon have to decide if a wall should come between residents who live on and around scenic Lake Mission Viejo. Last month, the City Council placed a moratorium on plans to erect a wall along 1,600 feet of lake front on the north side of Alicia Parkway. Homeowners who live on the waterway say a buffer, from three to five feet high, is needed to shield it from the traffic noise and litter that comes from the thoroughfare.

The Lake Mission Viejo Assn. has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle a wrongful-death suit filed by the family of an 18-year-old high school track star who drowned more than two years ago while swimming in the man-made lake. The settlement for more than $900,000, reached a week before trial, should put the association and corporations "on notice" to properly train and staff lifeguards to prevent future tragedies, said Mary Green-Johnson, the mother of Victor Brown Jr.

Orange County sheriff's deputies found pieces of broken glass near a playground slide at a Mission Viejo park Sunday, the fourth time in the last 10 days that someone has targeted a local park with sharp, hazardous objects. No one was injured, authorities said. "It appears [the glass] was intentionally placed at the bottom of a slide and on the steps," said Lt. Tom Gallivan of the Sheriff's Department.

Victor Brown would either be an Olympic sprinter or a computer whiz--perhaps both, his family had hoped. A day after the 18-year-old Narbonne High School senior drowned in Lake Mission Viejo, his family mourned Sunday that he will do neither. "I thought he could do a lot of good in this world," said his aunt, Barbara Green-Taylor of Torrance. "When I saw him coming, I just had to put a smile on my face." Authorities are still investigating Saturday's incident.

A 17-year-old Lawndale boy drowned Saturday while trying to swim with a friend to an anchored raft in the middle of Lake Mission Viejo, authorities said. Lifeguards pulled Victor Brown from the water at 4:43 p.m., more than 15 minutes after his companion realized his friend had gone missing, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Kirk Summers. Paramedics and lifeguards tried to resuscitate Brown, but the youth showed no signs of a pulse or breathing, Summers said.

The city and the Lake Mission Viejo Assn. may reach a settlement at the City Council meeting tonight that would end the association's pending lawsuit against the city. The group filed suit against the city on July 1 to challenge the validity of a city ordinance that was adopted to preserve public views of the lake. The ordinance restricts the height of landscaping on a 800-foot stretch of association property bordering Alicia Parkway.