HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — A person has drowned in Lake Michigan about a mile off the Saugatuck shoreline, according to Allegan County Sheriff’s Lt. Brett Ensfield.
Sheriff’s dive team members were summoned at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, on the report of a missing swimmer, he said in an email to the media.
Dive team deputies learned the person had gone swimming off a boat about a mile off the Saugatuck pierhead, but the swimmer did not have a flotation device and failed to resurface, according to Ensfield.
Emergency crews searched for several hours, but darkness forced their efforts to pause until morning, according to Ensfield. Around 9:30 AM on Sunday, “the individual was notified by emergency services,” the lieutenant said in a department statement.
On Sunday afternoon, the victim was publicly identified as 51-year-old Mary Claire Dice-Grooters of Grandville.
Assisting at the scene were members of Michigan’s Department of Nature Resources;, Saugatuck Township firefighters, and the United States Coast Guard.
The matter remains under investigation, Ensfield added.
— Gary Stevens contributed to this story.
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