Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter file photo by Air Station Traverse City
CLEVELAND — The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for an overdue fisherman on Lake Michigan near Kewaunee, Wisconsin, Thursday.
Missing is Mark Wautelet, 38 years old, approximately 6-feet tall, 270 pounds with brownish hair.
Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan received a notification from Kewaunee Dispatch at approximately 11:15 p.m. local, Wednesday, of an overdue 35-foot pleasure craft with one person on board who had departed the Kewaunee Marina at 5 p.m., local, on Wednesday and was expected back by 9:30 p.m., local.
The Coast Guard arrived on scene and located the vessel beached on shore with no persons onboard.
The Coast Guard saturated the search area with many air and boat assets including an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Michigan, an MH-60 from Coast Guard Air Facility Waukegan, Illinois, a 45-Foot Response Boat-Medium from Coast Guard Station Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a 29-Foot Response Boat-Small from Coast Guard Station Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a 29-Foot Response Boat-Small from Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, a Coast Guard Auxiliary fixed-wing aircraft from Muskegon, Michigan, and a Royal Canadian Air Force C-130 out of Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton, Ontario.
Coast Guard units searched a total of 425 square miles in 20 hours of searching.
Additional assets included units from the Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Algoma Police Department, the City of Kewaunee Police Department, the Eagle III helicopter through County Rescue in Brown County, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and a K9 unit from the Door County Sheriff’s Department.
