Two Pittsburgh residents, Ronald Young Jr., 51, and Richard Bofo, 49, were recovered from Lake Erie over the weekend after a boating excursion turned tragic. According to Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook, Young’s body was found near the Walnut Creek Access Area on Friday at approximately 6:47 p.m., and Bofo’s was located near Avonia Beach the following morning. Both deaths were ruled accidental drownings due to asphyxiation.
Friends and family had reported the pair missing after they failed to return from a routine boating trip roughly five miles offshore on July 2. “The next thing I heard was a splash… Richie missed the ladder and went under,” recounted Thomas Young, Ronnie’s uncle, who was on board at the time, in a family statement to Erie News Now. He described his nephew’s heroic but ultimately fatal attempt to save Bofo, saying, “I said, ‘Ronnie, reach for the lifejacket,’ and then he swam toward him… he turned back and said, ‘I’m not going to make it.’”.…