Ex-Alaska Lawmaker Found on Island

Former state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch poses for a photo in Juneau, Alaska, in Jan. 2007. The Coast Guard was searching Monday for the former state Representative Bruce Weyhrauch, who was reported missing after a family boating trip in Juneau's Auke Bay on Sunday. (AP Photo/Seanna O'Sullivan) (Seanna O'sullivan - AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A former state lawmaker and prominent attorney was found hypothermic but conscious on an island Monday, a day after his boat was discovered cruising unmanned in a Juneau bay.

Bruce Weyhrauch, 54, was reported missing after another vessel's crew spotted his 15-foot Boston Whaler on Sunday evening with its motor running and nobody on board.

Ninety minutes earlier, Weyhrauch had dropped off his teenage son on the beach near their home and had been headed for a harbor less than a mile away.

Weyhrauch's waterfront house is within sight of the island where he was found, but between them are the icy waters of Auke Bay.

He told troopers that he slipped on some oil, hit his head and fell out of the moving boat. He said it took an hour to swim to the island in the 40-degree water.

Searchers in helicopters and boats fanned out over 10 square miles, said Coast Guard spokesman Scott Wilwert. Volunteer boaters also joined the search, and others scanned area beaches on foot, Wilwert said.

Weyhrauch was found late Monday morning in wet jeans and a sweat shirt. He was taken to a Juneau hospital, where a spokeswoman said he was stable.

Bruce Bowler, a friend and a member of the volunteer search-and-rescue team that found Weyhrauch, said the ex-legislator could barely move or speak, which kept rescuers from immediately learning exactly what had happened to him.

"We're real, real glad to have found him when we did," he said.

Weyhrauch was in the state House from 2003 to 2006. Upon receiving the news that he was found alive, his former colleagues clapped and pounded their desks in the House chamber Monday.