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| AIR AND WATER SEARCH - A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from Detroit hovers over the designated swimming area in Lake Huron at Tawas Point State Park where the body of a 12-year-old Lansing boy was recovered Friday. Also pictured are watercraft from the Coast Guard, Oscoda Township Water Rescue Team and Iosco County Sheriff’s Department Marine Patrol. - Photo by John Morris
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Youth drowns in Lake Huron
by John Morris EAST TAWAS - A camping trip “up north” turned to tragedy Friday for a group of Boy Scouts and their young urban guests when a 12-year-old boy from Lansing drowned in Lake Huron.
The incident occurred on the southeast side of Tawas Point State Park in the park’s designated swimming area.
The Iosco County Sheriff’s Department received a report at about 3:56 p.m. of a missing child in the water who had disappeared below the surface, according to Deputy Sgt. Charles Linneman.
Emergency crews and beach- goers at the day use area of the state park searched for the boy in and along the designated swimming area.
The victim, identified by police as Kenneth Frasier, 12, of Lansing, was recovered near a designated swimming buoy at about 5:30 p.m., an hour and a half after the initial call for help, after his body was spotted by crews aboard a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from Detroit.
Crews aboard the Oscoda Township Water Rescue Team vessel immediately began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while the watercraft traveled to a beach landing area near the state park’s pavilion, where other emergency crews were waiting.
Emergency crews continued to perform CPR on the youth on the way to the waiting ambulance. He was transported by Iosco County Emergency Medical Services to Tawas St. Joseph Hospital.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
Also assisting at the scene were crews and watercraft from the U.S. Coast Guard Station East Tawas, Iosco County Sheriff’s Department and its Marine Patrol unit, East Tawas Michigan State Police, East Tawas Fire Department and rescue watercraft, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and officials from Tawas Point State Park and Iosco County Airport Manager Marv Poland, who flew an airplane overhead, searching for the youth, until the Coast Guard helicopter from Detroit arrived.
Lt. Robert Lesneski, commander of the East Tawas Michigan State Police post, said the youth was among 13 Lansing area children who were guests of a Lansing Boy Scout troop camping at Northwoods Scout Reservation in Lupton.
The scouts invited the youths to the area in a partnership with urban children in Lansing for an “up north” experience, such as canoeing and swimming in one of the Great Lakes for the first time, he said.
Friday was scheduled as the last day of the trip for the group.
Also assisting at the scene were crews and watercraft from the U.S. Coast Guard Station East Tawas, Iosco County Sheriff’s Department and its Marine Patrol unit, East Tawas Michigan State Police, East Tawas Fire Department and rescue watercraft, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and officials from Tawas Point State Park and Iosco County Airport Manager Marv Poland, who flew an airplane overhead, searching for the youth, until the Coast Guard helicopter from Detroit arrived.
Lt. Robert Lesneski, commander of the East Tawas Michigan State Police post, said the youth was among 13 Lansing area children who were guests of a Lansing Boy Scout troop camping at Northwoods Scout Reservation in Lupton.
The scouts invited the youths to the area in a partnership with urban children in Lansing for an “up north” experience, such as canoeing and swimming in one of the Great Lakes for the first time, he said.
Friday was scheduled as the last day of the trip for the group.
Linneman said Monday the cause of the drowning is still unknown and the incident remains under investigation.
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