HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, July 7, 2023) – The identity of a 63-year-old Holland man who had lost his life in a boating incident on Lake Macatawa on Wednesday afternoon has been disclosed.
According to Ottawa County Sheriff’s Sergeant James Douglas, Brian Deputy was with a woman in a boat that was going across Lake Macatawa near Kollen Park around 2:30 PM. The vessel was pulling a small tube that had two small children inside it. The youths fell out of the tube into the water, and due to strong winds that led to currents in the water, the children, who were both wearing life jackets at the time, couldn’t get back into the tube.
Both Mr. Deputy and the unnamed woman, who were not wearing life jackets, then dove in to try and rescue the youths, but they began to struggle. The woman was able to return to the boat, while a jet skier nearby were able to get the children onboard, but Mr. Deputy went under and didn’t resurface.
An extensive search on the lake by rescue units from the Holland Department of Public Safety, the Sheriff’s Department, the state DNR, and the US Coast Guard ensued. Around 8 PM, the sheriff’s department’s dive team, using side scan sonar, located and recovered Mr. Deputy’s body.
In the follow up release on Thursday that disclosed the victim’s name, Douglas expressed the department’s gratitude to the public for help in identifying the jet skiers involved who helped rescue the children, and that in talking with those rescuers, they were able to fill in additional details on the incident.
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