The body of a 20-year-old man was pulled out of Lake Tapps late Saturday evening, according to East Pierce Fire and Rescue.

A search team spent Saturday trying to find the victim after the Pierce County Sheriff’s Officers responded to reports of a person missing at Lake Tapps County Park.

According to eyewitnesses, a man was with his girlfriend inside the swimming area of the lake.

When the man was struggling, his girlfriend tried to help him but she needed to be rescued too.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Alison Grande spoke with Shawn Aughe, who saw the two people needing help in the water.

“She started screaming help really loud, she had to let go,” Aughe said. “I saw a girl out there and a guy. They were struggling pretty bad. Hardcore. I ran and jumped in.”

Aughe grabbed the inner tube he’d been pumping up and ran towards the screams.

When Aughe got to the couple, he was able to rescue the woman, but could not save the man.

The man disappeared into the water.

“We got the girl out there. She was screaming. She tried to get off to go back for him. When we tried to get her back and we had to get her back because she jumped off the tube,” Aughe said.

When they made it back to the shore, other witnesses got help by shouting for a nearby police officer.

Divers rushed to the lake to search, and it quickly became a recovery effort.

“It was really scary, and I feel really bad I wasn’t able to help,” said eyewitness Irina Tochinskaya.

When it got dark, divers pulled got out of the water and they started using sonar to find the young man's body.

Aughe is thankful he was able to save one person.

“You do what you can to help, you try,” Aughe said.

The search team recovered the man’s body after 11 p.m.

The man was from the Midwest and had relatives in the area.