A woman has died and another is still missing after a boat crashed with four people onboard in Mandurah, south of Perth, on Saturday night.
Police were called to the Mandurah estuary at around 10pm, after the boat hit a red channel marker.
A 54-year-old woman, Debbie Burdon, was injured onboard the vessel and was unable to be revived.
A search is continuing for a fourth passenger, 52-year-old Kylie Bazzo, who is the mother of West Coast Eagles youngster Rhett.
Ms Bazzo was thrown overboard and a major search and rescue mission is yet to find her.
Rhett Bazzo, 19, was drafted with pick 37 in the 2021 national AFL draft and played nine games in his first season with the Eagles.
He lost his father, Swan Districts great Steve Bazzo, to cancer in 2015.
“We’ve done land-based searches and water-based searches and at this stage we’re probably in a space where we’re looking to recover the body,” Acting Superintendent Peter Morrissey from the Mandurah District Office said.
A 47-year-old man, who was believed to be driving the boat, is in a stable condition at Royal Perth Hospital with serious injuries, while the fourth person onboard, a 54-year-old man, was uninjured.
Water police vessels and divers remain on the scene, searching for the missing woman.
Police have clarified the search is still underway shortly after issuing a statement to say the woman's body had been recovered.
Acting Superintendent Morrissey said police are looking into what caused the 5.5 metre boat to hit the marker.
"The speed and all the circumstances surrounding the crash will be at the forefront of the investigation,” he said.
“It is way too early at this stage to determine any sort of criminality or any sort of responsibility for this.”
'A tragedy waiting to happen', witness says
Vince and Wendy McCormack have told the ABC they witnessed the crash and called police.
“We heard a boat coming from the bridge down this way ... speeding very quickly, and then all of a sudden we heard a bang," Ms McCormack said.
"It didn’t have any lights on the boat and it went straight into the marker in the water and then there was silence, there was nothing.
“It’s something we hear often at night, that the boats go up so fast without any lights on and it’s a tragedy waiting to happen.”
Mr McCormack said police responded quickly.
“We felt helpless not being able to access them in the water, we didn't have a boat but the police were quick," he said.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
