CHICAGO — The body of a woman found floating in Lake Michigan about a mile offshore could be that of a missing boater, authorities said Sunday.
The woman, in her 20s, was found floating in the lake about 6:15 Saturday evening, police said. She was pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m.
An autopsy conducted Sunday surmised the woman could be one of two people missing after a May 31 boat accident that killed one woman, Ashley Haws, 26. It concluded the woman died of drowning, immersion in water and a boat accident.
Another man was rescued from the lake, but rescue crews, which included the U.S. and Canadian coast guards, the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Fire Department, did not find the two missing boaters, a woman and the boat's owner, Orest Sopka.
The group was sailing from New Buffalo, Michigan, to Burnham Harbor when their 33-foot recreational craft experienced "some kind of incident on board," said Charles Wolfson, command officer on duty for the Coast Guard's Lake Michigan Sector Command in Milwaukee. The boat, which was 5 to 7 miles offshore, may have caught fire or started sinking, authorities said.
