HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – Efforts to recover the body of a missng 16-year-old teenager from Holland in Lake Michigan are now underway according to Captain John Wolffis of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office.
The 16-year-old boy was on a boat that capsized around 8:40 p.m. near Holland State Park on Sunday June 20. Crews from several agencies, including the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department Dive Team and the U.S. Coast Guard, have been working to find the body of the missing teen.
The small boat they were in took a sharp turn near Holland State Park beach Sunday evening. A nearby boater picked up one of the 16-year-old boys and immediately called 911. The rescued boy lost sight of his friend, Wolffis said, and police were trying to triangulate the signal of the Good Samaritan’s phone.
Five marine-rescue crews took to the waters along the Lake Michigan shoreline; two with divers and two with side sonars, searching for the teen.
The boat was recovered in about 20 feet of water, of the shoreline near Spyglass Condominiums, Wolffis said, but the boat’s location wasn’t a good indicator of where the boys had been dumped because it kept moving though the water after the incident. The rescued teen wasn’t found until five or 10 minutes after the incident.
The park closed early and most of the boats on the lake that were visible from shore returned to their slips.
The call for help came in at 8:40 p.m. Emergency responders were on shore, on boats in the water (including two dive teams) side-scan sonar equipment and a submersible. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, and, after dark, a small plane flew in to help with the search.
The boys appear to have come to the beach together, without other family members, Wolffis said.
Wolffis said boaters should wear personal flotation devices; boaters who find someone in the water should call 911 immediately, he said and “mark the GPS coordinates as soon as they can, because everything moves.”
– Peg McNichol contributed to this report.
