(Orleans)– Authorities have recovered the body of 19-year-old Charles Richard Peterson who had been missing since Thursday when a boat he and two other people were on board capsized on Big Spirit Lake.
Dickinson County Sheriff Greg Baloun says Peterson’s body was found in about 20 feet of water off of Marble Beach…a short distance from where the boat capsized. It was recovered around 12:45 p.m. with the assistance of sonar equipment.
The other two teens on the boat were rescued by a fisherman who found them clinging to a life jacket shortly after the boat capsized. They’re identified as 13-year-old Boyd Peterson–Charles Peterson’s brother; and 22-year-old Levi Whitthaller of Omaha. The three had been camping at Marble Beach for the Fourth of July holiday.
Baloun says he and the family of Charlie Peterson extend their heartfelt appreciation to everyone who assisted in the search and recovery and those who brough food and other assistance.
With the holiday weekend here and scores of people headed for the lakes, Baloun urges everyone to play it safe. If you’re going to be on the water, don’t drink and operate a boat, and make sure everyone in your boat has a lifejacket on. He adds patience will be the name of the game as scores of people make their way to the lakes.
There have been atleast two other drownings in the past year in the Iowa Great Lakes including Collin Helmers and Mathew Molacek both of Estherville who were on a dock barge that sank last October on West Lake Okoboji. In addition to that, the body of an Okoboji woman was found in the water near her dock this spring on East Lake Okoboji–it wasn’t immediately certain if she died of drowning; and an Ohio woman was seriously injured this week after jumping off a boat into a shallow area of West Lake Okoboji.
