Body of 2nd boater found near Canada
6/26/2007MONROE - The body of a Michigan boater who had been missing since last week was found Sunday afternoon and an autopsy yesterday identified the victim as Rick David Dolney, 57, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., authorities said.
His body was found in Canadian waters of Lake Erie, close to Colchester Harbour, near Harrow, Ont., which is about 25 miles southeast of Windsor.
A recreational boater found the body, which was not wearing a life jacket, about 3 p.m. An autopsy in Windsor yesterday found that Mr. Dolney drowned, an Ontario Provincial Police spokesman said.
"It's such a tragic loss," said Ed Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Detroit where Mr. Dolney was employed as a mail handler since 1995. He was stationed at the Priority Mail center in Romulus, Mich., moving carts full of mail.
The other man who went boating with Mr. Dolney on Wednesday - Lewis Daniel Styes, 59, of Belleville, Mich., whose body was found Friday - was a mail handler on the same shift.
The postal service is providing grief counseling for employees who request it, Mr. Moore said.
The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search for Mr. Dolney Friday night.
The search began about 10 a.m. Thursday when the Coast Guard was alerted to a 17-foot power boat that was capsized and partially sunk in the shipping lanes about 3 miles offshore from Detroit Edison Co.'s Fermi 2 nuclear plant.
Mr. Dolney and Mr. Styes launched from the Wyandotte, Mich., municipal docks about 2 p.m. Wednesday.
They intended to return after supper, said Deana Petty, Mr. Styes' sister.
The Coast Guard had at least one boat and one helicopter out for the entire 36 hours of its search.
At times during that search, it had up to four boats and two helicopters assigned to the case, an officer said.