Recovery Effort Begins For Missing Boaters
Three People Rescued After Boat Capsizes
POSTED: 7:18 am EDT May 19,
2003
UPDATED: 9:03 am EDT May 19,
2003
The search for a man and a 10-year-old boy who disappeared after their boat capsized on a fishing trip has resumed Monday morning.
The recovery effort follows a Sunday accident that left Lamont Evans, 10, and Bruce Cain, 24, missing after their boat capsized near Windmill Point Marina in Grosse Pointe Park. The pair went under in about 15 feet of water, just yards from a dock, Local 4 reported.
Walter Ward, 39, his son Michael, 7, and friend Sergio Stevens survived the accident, according to the station's reports.The group went out in a rented, 14-foot long Alumacraft utility boat from the Fisherman's Marina in Detroit. The boat reportedly came equipped with life jackets.According to the Alumacraft Web site, the boat's capacity is five people, but Grosse Pointe Park police and rescuer Tom Fraser said five was too many."You wouldn't have caught me with five people in a 14-foot boat with the kind of chop that was especially inside the wall here today," Fraser, who saw the boat go down, said. "I wouldn't have been out there."The Coast Guard found the boat downriver, along with the life preservers. The Coast Guard said the lifejackets should have been worn.Detroit Fire Department divers searched Sunday afternoon and evening in water with only one foot of visibility, the station reported. They were only able to recover some fishing poles and a net.Grosse Pointe Park Police Chief David Hiller said without Fraser and his friends, the situation could have been worse."They literally jumped over the breakwater and grabbed three of these people," Hiller said. "And they were able to assist them out of the water. So we're lucky we have three survivors at this point."The rescuers said the 55-degree water made the situation the most difficult.Grosse Pointe police continue to investigate the accident. They do not believe alcohol was involved.
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