Body of missing Lake Michigan scuba diver recovered
Updated: 4:41 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2024
PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A diver was recovered from Lake Michigan on Wednesday, Sept. 11.
According to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, the missing scuba diver was recovered around 10:15 a.m.
The diver was identified as 72-year-old Patrick Kelly of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois.
"They were just in the shop filling up tanks about a month or so ago, so I would see him a lot and I used to dive with him an awful lot when I was younger," said Dan Vaccaro, owner of Diver Dan Scuba Center.
Around 10 o'clock Wednesday morning, the dive and rescue teams found the body of Patrick Kelly.
Sergeant Colin Coultrip, with the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, says only seasoned divers would go out to the S.S. Wisconsin.
"He is a very experienced diver to go down 120 -130 feet. That takes a massive amount of skill and expertise and training, so he's been an experienced diver, but unfortunately things happen to everybody. So that's part of our investigation is to figure out what exactly occurred," Sergeant Coultrip explained.
Vaccaro says the day it happened, Sept. 10, was Kelly's birthday, and the S.S Wisconsin was one of his favorite dives.
"He did that quite a few times. Especially when we were younger, he would go out there and do it too," said Vaccaro.
Last night, Vaccaro talked with Kelly's wife, who was on the boat and alerted authorities when her husband didn't resurface.
Vaccaro says even though Kelly was an experienced diver, a lot of things could have caused this.
"He was bringing up a line, which has a chain to it - that's heavy - as he's pulling that up, as he's coming up, the line - something could have happened there, where he got tangled up into it. Or something could have happened to his equipment that took away the buoyancy that he had, and that would have taken him down too," Vaccaro explained.
Vaccaro says Kelly's wife saw him before he went down.
"She could see him from the surface, and then all of a sudden there was a large amount of bubbles coming up; then they stopped, and she couldn't see him anymore," said Vaccaro.
That's when she called for help.
Vaccaro says Kelly will be greatly missed.
"The diving community is a very close community. Everyone knows everyone, what kind of diving they do, and if you don't have a partner, you just get on the phone and call," said Vaccaro.
Vaccaro also said safety is always the most important thing and that he hopes people continue to visit the S.S. Wisconsin and learn its history.
Published: Sept. 10, 2024
PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The search for a missing scuba diver on Lake Michigan is expected to resume Wednesday morning, Sept. 11. Risky conditions miles off the Kenosha County shoreline forced dive teams to bring in their boats earlier than planned Tuesday.
Concern is high in the diving community for one of their own.
A red flag representing a diver down blows in the wind. That's the boat the Illinois scuba diver who's now missing, and his wife, took out on Lake Michigan Tuesday morning.
"There was a diver, an experienced diver, he was very far off the shore, and he was doing a dive that was over 100 feet deep. His wife was on the boat with him and when he didn't come up in time, she had called for assistance, so we did that," said Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner.
Dozens of dive teams responded, first to Pleasant Prairie, then meeting up at the Kenosha boat launch. Police are not yet releasing the man's name, but say he was exploring the shipwreck of the SS Wisconsin which sank in 1929. It's located six miles out from Pleasant Prairie and is a common wreck for experienced divers.
"With the infestation of the quagga mussels and zebra mussels over the last 15 years, visibility is phenomenal down there, so we're getting a lot more recreational divers diving the wreck," said Brian Vaccaro, of Diver Dan's Scuba and Aquatic Center.
At this Kenosha scuba shop, the phone's been ringing all day with people very concerned about what happened to a fellow diver.
"The diving community's a very small, tight-knit group, so you know, when something like this happens, it hits hard, and a lot of people know each other so everybody's been calling and checking on each other," said Vaccaro.
Multiple dive teams launched from Kenosha returned, unsuccessful.
Just five hours into the search, crews had to call it off when conditions on the water six miles out got too risky to continue.
"Although it was not terrible conditions when the search began, the weather picked up far offshore and the boats had a very difficult time," said Sheriff Zoerner.
"Lake Michigan is an inland ocean, it can change on a dime, you know. We've been out there before where it's flat, calm, and within 10 minutes, we're in three, four-footers," said Vaccaro.
The search for the missing scuba diver is expected to resume Wednesday morning.