Boater found dead weeks after vanishing, but friend and boat still missing, IN cops say
A body found floating in Lake Michigan was identified as one of the boaters who vanished weeks ago, according to Indiana authorities.
Visitors at a park in Whiting, Indiana, spotted a body floating offshore on Tuesday, Aug. 16, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported. Officials identified the body as 36-year-old Dexter Trendell Sain of Chicago and said his cause of death was drowning, CBS News reported.
Sain and Curtis Herron, 36 of Chicago, vanished after they set out in late July on a 30-foot boat Herron recently purchased, ABC 7 reported. Herron and the boat have not been found as of Aug. 18, the Associated Press reported.
Family members told the Associated Press that the “longtime” friends wanted to “test run” the boat but had “very little boating experience.”
The pair arrived at a marina in East Chicago, Indiana, on July 26 where they had the boat put into the water, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported, citing local police. After getting fuel, the men left on the boat the next morning, headed towards Illinois, East Chicago police said, according to the outlet.
Less than two hours later, the boat began experiencing electrical problems and the men called a tow company, the Associated Press reported, citing police. After talking with the towers, they turned down the service due to the cost.
The U.S. Coast Guard began searching for the men on July 31, after their families reported them missing, the agency said in a news release. The boaters were last seen about a mile from the Indiana Harbor steel mill, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Officials searched an 845-square-mile area with boats and aircraft before suspending the search on Aug. 2, the agency said in a series of tweets.
Sain’s and Herron’s families continued posting about their missing relatives, asking people to share the information.
“My family is falling apart,” one relative told The Chicago Tribune. “We’ve never experienced anything like this. This is unimaginable. This is something you think you only see on TV.”
East Chicago is about 25 miles southeast of Chicago, across the Illinois-Indiana state line.
This story was originally published August 18, 2022 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Boater found dead weeks after vanishing, but friend and boat still missing, IN cops say."
