While authorities presume a Raleigh man has drowned in Lake Gaston, they still consider the operation to find him a search effort for a missing person.

Captain Jay Burch of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office said dive teams continued their search today for 24-year-old Karl Besas. 

Burch said authorities presume Besas drowned when he and friends went for a late night swim Friday night off Vincent Circle in the Myrick Estates subdivision.

The friends took a boat and when they were done discovered Besas was not with them.

Emergency management personnel from Smith Mountain Lake and the Norfolk Harbor Patrol have assisted local dive teams.