SURPRISING STUFF

The body of a Lake Geneva man who went missing on Thursday evening was found in a lake in Lac du Flambeau in northern Wisconsin on Saturday, according to the local police department.
45-year-old Kyle Ascheman was vacationing with family on Whitefish Lake and had gone out on Whitefish Lake in a small boat with an outboard motor at around 8 p.m., the evening he went missing. About half an hour later, a concerned citizen spotted his unmanned boat traveling in tight circles on the lake and contacted law enforcement. The Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Department and Tribal Conservation Law Department responded to the scene. Fearing Ascheman had been ejected from the vessel, officers and the 911 caller began an immediate search of the lake.

The Lac du Flambeau officers quickly requested assistance from neighboring law enforcement and EMS agencies, and personnel from throughout northern Wisconsin joined the effort. Trained Search and Rescue dogs, underwater drones, and aerial drones, as well as highly sensitive sonar equipment, were deployed in the search efforts. According to the press release, the man was not found on Friday, but the search was narrowed in the late evening hours due to the use of specialized equipment operated by the Wisconsin DNR personnel.

Within hours of resuming searches on Saturday morning, the Wisconsin DNR’s sophisticated sonar equipment located Ascheman’s body at a depth of around 38 feet within the lake. Because lakebed conditions and poor visibility impeded recovery efforts, the Oneida Dive Team was contacted for assistance. With the help of the divers, the body was raised to the surface and recovered.