Tragedy on Lake Nepessing as Man Goes Missing Off Boat

The holiday weekend saw tragedy on Lake Nepessing in Lapeer Country. As of Sunday night, dive teams and marine patrol were still searching for a missing 59-year-old man, David Michael Holmes.

According to The County Press, the Holmes went missing off a boat on the lake sometime around 10:30 pm Saturday. Lapeer County Marine Patrol & Dive Team worked through the night and were joined by the Oakland County Sheriff Department Rescue Dive Team as well for the search.

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Joining the search that continued through Sunday were Lapeer County Search & Rescue K9 as well as the Michigan State Police Aviation Division used a helicopter to do an aerial search of the lake which covers around 414 acres.

Lapeer Country Sheriff Scott McKenna told The County Press that the man was with a group of 3 boats when he went missing. According to Sheriff McKenna, it is believed the missing man was familiar with the lake, and the area, and was said to be an excellent swimmer in good health. The man's car is still parked in the parking lot he left it on Saturday.

As a result of the ongoing search, Lake Nepessing was closed on Saturday to allow for first responder boats and dive teams to conduct their search. Lake Nepessing is known to be murky and has heavy volumes of weeds that could make the search difficult.

It was back in August 2009 that the body of Dr. Antoun Aftimos was recovered three days after he was lost under the water. Reports say it was the heavy weeds and murky water that hampered the search for the 43 years old. It was the last drowning in Lake Nepessing.

We will update this story as more information becomes available.

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