Eighteen years since Sonny Bono died while skiing in South Lake Tahoe

It has been 18 years since Sonny Bono, a California congressman and entertainer who had performed at Lake Tahoe, died in a skiing accident at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Bono was 62 when he set out skiing on that Monday morning, January 5, 1998. He was first reported missing at 4:30 p.m. In hopes that he left the mountain without telling anyone, Bono was paged in each of the Stateline casinos.

Officials reported that the resort ski patrol found Bono's body between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. after a search on the Nevada side of the mountain. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office positively identified Bono as the victim at 12:45 p.m. January 6.

According to a Reno Gazette Journal story from 1998, Bono was on a vacation with his wife, Mary Whitaker, and their two children, 6-year-old Chianna and 9-year-old Chesare, when the accident happened. They were all from Palm Springs, Calif.

Bono was a former singer, whose records with ex-wife Cher topped charts in the 1960s. After their divorce he went into politics, becoming mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., from 1988 to 1992, and congressman for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death.

Bono's accident had come just days after Michael Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, died of head injuries in a ski accident in Aspen, Colo. Kennedy hit a tree while playing football on skis.

Media trucks from around the state converged on Heavenly the morning after Bono's body was found, setting up their satellite trucks and conducting interviews in the California side's parking lot.