GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Crews recovered the body of a man who went missing Thursday evening in the Grand River.
The Grand Rapids' Fire and Police Departments along with the Kent County Sheriff's Office brought in boats and told FOX 17 they used drones, dive teams and underwater cameras in their recovery efforts. The man's body was found around 12:15 p.m. Friday under 8 feet of water.
Fire Marshal William Smith says the victim is male, and he is presumed to have drowned. He says it appears to be accidental.
The Grand Rapids Police Department said the first call came in around 9 p.m. Thursday night.
Bystanders told FOX 17 crews they saw someone struggling in the water.
Both Grand Rapids' Police and Fire Departments conducted a search which was suspended after an hour and a half due to the dark conditions Thursday night.
Rescue teams says it was because of survivability chances.
"There's a point at which we will treat every drowning in Michigan as a cold water drowning outside of a hot tub," said Grand Rapids Fire Department Battalion Chief Ed Braman. "It's just like you'd see when kids go through the ice, and we'd bring them back after an hour, two hours. We hit that point but after an hour they no longer work, so now we transition to recovery mode," he said.
He says they're well-experienced for a search and recovery like this.
"We train regularly for the river. It's here all the time, people are in it. There's no rhyme or reason when we get a call. It can be when its high, and when its low. I don't have any idea why this person may have been in the position they were in," he said.
In an update on Friday morning, Smith said recovery efforts had begun just after 9 a.m.
At first, the wind was too strong to put up drones, but it eventually subsided.
Crews also conducted a sub-search with boats, looking at the surface to see if they could spot anything. On Thursday night, rescuers marked a spot with a buoy, believing there was clothing to be investigated further on Friday.
The focus of this search was off Monroe Avenue, across the street from Michigan Veteran Homes at Grand Rapids.
