‘Beyond his depth’: Victorian visitor reveals what happened at Henley Beach during search for ‘missing’ person

Police and surf life savers scoured the waters off Henley Beach for hours on Monday for a missing swimming before calling it off – now one tourist says he knows what happened.

A Victorian holiday-maker has shed light on the mystery of a missing swimmer who triggered a large-scale air and sea search at Henley Beach on Monday.

Emergency services, including police and surf life saving crews, launched the search after a witness reported seeing someone in distress in the water around 1.20pm.

The search wrapped up about two and half hours later when there no further sightings, information or reports of anyone missing.

Rich Lambert, who was holidaying with his family in Adelaide and witnessed the events play out from the Henley Beach jetty, believes he may have the answer to what happened on the beach.

Mr Lambert was on the pier with two of his sons and his father-in-law when he saw beachgoers alert lifeguards to a person in trouble in the water.

Beachgoers look for a suspected missing person at Henley Beach on Monday. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Emergency services launched a search at Henley Beach on Monday following reports of a swimmer in trouble. Picture: Russell Millard Photography.

When he looked out to sea he saw one man swimming in the vicinity of where others were pointing, some 20m out from the shore.

“There was a head bobbing around out there and he clearly was beyond his depth,” he said.

“It looked like he was potentially in a little bit of trouble.”

The 45-year-old said there was a strong sweep and by the time he saw the first lifeguard paddle out, the swimmer had been dragged about 20 metres away.

“Thinking back, my suspicion about the whole thing started when this guy ended up probably 50 metres down the beach. He ended up drifting back into shore and being able to stand up. And then I watched him walk away and I thought, that was a bit strange,” he recalled.

“I thought someone would grab him and say: did you see another person out there or was that your friend? But he seemed oblivious that anything was going on and he wandered off.

“Because there were a lot of people standing around by that point, he just went completely unnoticed.”

Mr Lambert said he didn’t speak to the authorities at the time because he assumed it was another person – possibly a friend of the swimmer – who went missing in the water.

Police search the water off Henley Beach for the missing swimmer Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Emergency services launched a search at Henley Beach on Monday following reports of a swimmer in trouble. Picture: Image/Russell Millard Photography.

It was only when he learnt the search was called off and no one was reported missing he realised the dark-haired man he watched drift to shore was likely the person emergency crews were searching for.

Mr Lambert has since spoken to the police, sharing his account of events.

“I realise now that because I was on the pier, I could see the whole thing very clearly, whereas on the beach it wouldn’t have been as obvious and he would have easily gone out of sight.”

Mr Lambert, who has a few more South Australian sites on his holiday itinerary, praised the professional response from emergency services.

“We thought we were witnessing a tragedy so very glad that we weren’t,” he said.

SAPOL did not comment on whether it was able to corroborate Mr Lambert’s account.

Across the state, another search for two people ended in tragedy with Roger Walker and Victor Kent confirmed dead after their boat capsized in water at Point Connor, south of Beachport.