A 37-year-old Corvallis man and Oregon State University doctoral student drowned Sunday afternoon at Lewis Creek Park on Foster Reservoir near Sweet Home, after family and friends realized they hadn't seen him for about an hour. Two swimmers spotted a person submerged in roughly 10 feet of water inside the park's enclosed swimming area, prompting a search that ended with the recovery of Shuaib Ahmed Mubarak's body.
Linn County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to Lewis Creek Park in Sweet Home following a missing-person report Sunday, according to KPTV. The Linn County Sheriff's Office Dive Team recovered Mubarak's body from the water, and the station reports he was confirmed deceased at the scene. His body was later transported to Sweet Home Funeral Chapel, and the sheriff's office has assigned the case number 26-03091 as it continues to investigate.
Mubarak was a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in Wood Science & Engineering at Oregon State University's College of Forestry, connecting him directly to the Corvallis academic community just a short drive from where he died. Per the same KPTV account, Sheriff Michelle Duncan urged anyone with information, or anyone who saw Mubarak at the park, to contact the Linn County Sheriff's Office at (541) 967-3950. The investigation remains ongoing, and the precise circumstances of how Mubarak ended up submerged before he was found have not been detailed publicly.
A Swim Area With No Lifeguards on Duty
Lewis Creek County Park is a 40-acre day-use site on the north shore of Foster Reservoir that includes picnic areas, boat moorage, and a designated, roped-off swimming area — one that operates without lifeguards on duty, according to Linn County Parks. Foster Reservoir itself is a 1,220-acre impoundment built across the South Santiam River in 1968 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sitting seven miles downstream from Green Peter Dam.
This is not the first fatal drowning in that same swim area. In July 2021, a 36-year-old swimmer drowned near the designated swimming zone at Lewis Creek Park after falling off a paddleboard while trying to help a child in distress, according to the Linn County Sheriff's Office. The recurrence points to persistent hazards at the reservoir even in a marked, enclosed swimming section.
Notably, Lewis Creek Park and the adjacent Gedney Boat Ramp were temporarily closed to the public on July 29 for road construction and dam maintenance conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, with access across Foster Dam Road restricted during that work. The park had reopened by the time of Sunday's drowning.
Oregon's Broader Drowning Risk
State and federal data point to systemic risk factors behind incidents like this one. The Oregon State Marine Board estimates that 85% to 90% of drowning victims in the state's recreational waterways were not wearing life jackets at the time of their accidents, according to OPB. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District has separately found that men account for nearly 90% of drowning victims at Corps-managed lakes and reservoirs, a trend officials attribute to swimmers overestimating their abilities while not wearing personal flotation devices.
Public health data submitted by the Oregon Pediatric Society also shows the state's natural-water drowning rate for youth ages 5 to 18 runs 68% higher than the national average, underscoring that drowning remains a leading cause of accidental death statewide. Corps officials have also warned that summer heat waves drive sharp increases in natural-water drownings, since hot air temperatures can lure swimmers into cold, mountain-fed reservoirs where sudden hypothermia or involuntary gasping can occur even when the surface conditions seem calm.
The Linn County Sheriff's Office dive team, which routinely coordinates with local fire districts, handles search, rescue, and underwater recovery operations across the county's lakes and rivers, including Foster Reservoir. For now, the investigation into Mubarak's death continues, and anyone with information is asked to reach the sheriff's office directly.
