GRAND HAVEN, MI (WHTC) – A 23-year-old Coopersville man has died after apparently falling out of a kayak in the waters of Lake Michigan near Grand Haven on Saturday evening.
Crews from the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety were augmented by those from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department and the US Coast Guard in their search. Use of sonar detected the body of Sheldon Benson around 1 AM on Sunday.
He and an unnamed 21-year-old man from Jackson were in separate kayaks about 200 to 300 feet from shore when one capsized in rough water near a restaurant. Investigators say that the second kayaker capsized in an effort to rescue the first. The Jackson man was able to swim to shore and was reportedly taken to North Ottawa Community Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
It was the second fatal drowning of a boater in the waters of Lake Michigan off of an Ottawa County shore in three weeks. On June 19th, 16-year-old Riley Hoeksema of Holland fell out of a craft with an inflatable hull near Holland State Park; his body was recovered three days later.
There are reports that neither Benson nor the unnamed man were wearing life jackets at the time of this incident, which remains under investigation.
