Officials try to determine what killed the outdoorsman, 46.

May 20, 2002

By MONICA VALENCIA
The Orange County Register

Dana Point – Denise Boos had been waiting on a bench for her husband's return from an early morning kayaking trip Sunday when she saw sheriff's authorities walking toward his green truck.

Already worried when he hadn't returned home on time, she realized that something was terribly wrong.

"I can't believe I'm a widow at age 40," a tearful Denise Boos said Sunday, after learning that her husband, William Boos, 46, was dead. "He was my rock. I miss him very much."

Officials are trying to determine why William Boos died while paddling through calm waters at Dana Point Harbor.

Officials don't know if he fell overboard and drowned or if he had a medical mishap, such as a heart attack, and then fell into the water.

An autopsy for the Dana Point man is planned for today.

"It may not have been a drowning," said county Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh. "It could have been a natural death."

Denise Boos said her husband's family had a history of heart disease.

William Boos and Kyle Adler, a friend who was in a separate kayak, were returning to shore when Adlere looked back and saw Boos in the water, said sheriff's Lt. Larry Abbott.

Turning his kayak around, Adler saw Boos slip under the water, Abbott said.

Adler returned to shore at Mother's Beach and called 911 at 8:14 a.m., he said.

Three sheriff's divers and one state lifeguard diver found Boos at 10:09 a.m., less than 100 feet from shore in water about 15 to 20 feet deep, Abbott said.

"He died doing what he loved doing," said Pam Akins, a friend of Boos.

Friends described "Bill" as an outdoorsman who kayaked two to three times a week.

Boos, an engineer at the San Onofre nuclear plant, also enjoyed woodwork and crafted sculptures that appear throughout his home. A wooden sculpture of a coyote head sits, half-finished, in the back yard.

"He was constantly creating," said friend John Anderson.

Known for his sense of humor, he gave his friends plastic pink flamingos and handmade fly-fishing lure Christmas ornaments as gifts.

"Bill was who we all wanted to be," said friend Tom Rafferty, standing in the Booses' plant-filled yard. "He always took care of his work, his home, his family."

Boos also is survived by his daughters from a previous marriage, Chelsea Ann, 19, and Kaili, 17, and stepdaughter Heather Roeller, 16, Denise Boos said.

"He was very loving and supportive," she said. "We would have celebrated a year of marriage in June."