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Police are currently working to identify a body pulled from Lake Michigan, according to WTHR-13 News.
A sailboat captain spotted the body Sunday (September 4) about 12 miles offshore from the Berrien County village of Shoreham. The captain then reported his discovery to the Coast Guard. A crew recovered the body and turned it over to the Berrien County Sheriff's Department for the investigation.
An autopsy was planned to identify the body, as well as determine the cause of death. The sheriff's department has not released any additional information about the death, or how the body might have gotten so far offshore, at the time of this writing.
According to Mlive, Lake Michigan drowning deaths in 2022 are outpacing those of prior years. By August 9, at least 33 people had drown in Lake Michigan. This is the highest number of deaths by that date in any year since 2013, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.
Executive Director of Public Relations and Project Management for the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project David Benjamin believes drownings in Lake Michigan have always happened at this high of a rate, according to Mlive. He attributed the seeming increase to the project simply having gotten better at tracking the incidents and recording them.