FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, MI (WCMH/AP) – Authorities have recovered the body of a man believed to have fallen into the icy waters of western Lake Erie last week while riding an all-terrain vehicle.
Monroe County sheriff’s deputies responded the night of Jan. 10 following a report that the vehicle went through the ice about 1,000 feet from land near Frenchtown Township in southeastern Michigan.
The sheriff’s department says an open area of water was found where 40-year-old Derik Bondy of Frenchtown Township reportedly fell. The Monroe News reports searchers used sonar and a submarine-like device on Wednesday for about eight hours but found nothing.
The search continued Thursday and the paper reports the man’s body was found in about 10 feet of water about 1,200 feet offshore on the lake side of Stony Point. Visibility underwater was around six feet.
The Coast Guard last week issued a warning about potentially unstable ice on the Great Lakes as temperatures warmed following a recent stretch of bitter cold.