Search for swimmer continues today

The search was set to resume today for a 20-year-old swimmer missing since Saturday from Juanita Beach Park and presumed drowned.

Throughout Sunday, the family of the missing swimmer held a vigil at Juanita Beach Park, praying not only the five daily prayers that are common during the month of Ramadan, but dua, other prayers said with Javed Khan in mind.

As Jet Skis and outboard motors hummed through Lake Washington and the aroma of other families' barbecues drifted along the beach, Khan's family peered through binoculars and squinted into the afternoon sun trying to catch a glimpse of the King County sheriff's marine divers as they searched for his body.

On Saturday, the first day of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of self purification, Khan and his father, Mohammed Feroz Khan, shared breakfast and prayed together. Then, Khan left and later went boating with friends.

At 7 p.m., one of them called 911 to report not being able to find Khan. He had gone underwater and didn't resurface. Kirkland police, the King County Sheriff's Office and the Coast Guard all participated in searching until dark Saturday night without success.

"They tried and tried," said Khan's father, who sat at a picnic table as a group of friends crowded about him. Khan's mother and sister had cut short a vacation in Australia and were expected home Sunday night.

The last time he saw his son, Mohammed Feroz Khan was "sitting in the living room and he walked past and that was it."

Mohammed Feroz Khan didn't know where Khan was going or who he would be with, which wasn't unusual. He assumed Khan would return by late afternoon to eat since he would have been fasting throughout the day.

Family and friends are still piecing together what happened, said Khan's cousin Mohammed Irfaan Khan, who waited on the dock at the park with the others.

Police say two boats were tied up side by side in Juanita Bay and Khan was in the water. Police have been using sonar to try to locate the body. Lake Washington is notoriously muddy with a thick blanket of weeds on the bottom, said sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart.

Khan, who was born in Seattle and went to Mountlake Terrace High School, was gregarious and energetic, his family said. A student at Lake Washington Technical College, he was studying automotive engineering.

"He was always very sure of himself, very confident," said his cousin. "He knew a lot about boats and taught me," Mohammed Irfaan Khan said.

Most of Khan's family is from the Fiji Islands and Khan spent a lot of time there and loved to fish and being outdoors.

"He had a great personality. He respected his elders. When asked, he never hesitated to help," his cousin said.

As Khan's father watched the search boat in the far horizon, he said that his son's apparent death would be especially hard on Khan's sister.

"When you only have one son and one daughter, you are close," he said.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com