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Divers resume search for missing man on Loon Lake

Dive teams have returned to the shores of west Loon Lake this morning to resume the search for the body of a 62-year-old man who was unable to get back on a boat in Antioch Township on Thursday afternoon.

Deputy Chief Chris Leinhardt of the Antioch Fire Protection District said boats returned to Loon Lake at about 7 a.m. Friday, and had side-scan sonar in the water by 7:15 a.m.

He said the search would continue today until the body is found or darkness makes diving unsafe.

The unidentified victim and a second 69-year-old man went out onto west Loon Lake on a pontoon boat around 1:15 p.m., and the 62-year-old decided to go for a swim at some point between 1:15 and 2:15 p.m., according to police.

The man was struggling to get back onto the boat, and the 69-year-old man jumped in to assist, said Sgt. Karen Kates of the Lake County sheriff's office. The second man also struggled to get back on the boat, and one of the men yelled to a passing boat for help, according to police.

The boater rescued the 69-year-old, but the second man went under, according to authorities.

Kates said Friday the name of the missing man is still being withheld, but added that alcohol does not seem to be a factor in the incident.

Dive teams from a number of departments searched the waters and scanned the lake with side sonar for nearly six hours Thursday but called off the recovery effort at 8 p.m., Kates said.

A 911 caller reported the drowning at 2:13 p.m., and dive teams on boats from three Lake County departments immediately responded to the lake at the intersection of Route 83 and Grass Lake Road.

Fire department officials upgraded the search, bringing in help from neighboring departments because of the heat and its toll on rescue divers, Lienhardt said.

Fire officials reclassified the search from a rescue to a recovery operation at 4:01 p.m., Lienhardt said.

Search crews are using sonar technology to search for the missing man's body, he said.

Rescue crews from Lake Villa, Libertyville, Grayslake, Fox Lake, Spring Grove, Lincolnshire, Lake Forest, Wauconda, Countryside and Barrington assisted in the effort.

  Neighboring departments assisted in the search Thursday at Loon Lake because of the heat and its toll on rescue divers. Joel Bissell/jbissell@dailyherald.com
  Crews used sonar technology to search for the missing manÂ’s body in Loon Lake on Thursday. Joel Bissell/jbissell@dailyherald.com
  Officials reclassified the Loon Lake search from a rescue to a recovery operation at 4:01 p.m. Thursday. Joel Bissell/jbissell@dailyherald.com
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