After a six-hour search into early Saturday, authorities recovered the body of a 21-year-old Gary man who went missing in a northwest Indiana lake while swimming with friends.
The pontoon that Jeremy Dabney had rented with a group of friends on Pine Lake was anchored about 275 feet from shore near the 500 block of Lakeside Street in La Porte when they jumped in the water Friday evening, according to a statement from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
When they swam back to the boat, Dabney started to struggle and slipped under the water as others tried to rescue him, conservation police said. His friends called for help at 6:40 p.m.
Dive teams searched with sonar equipment for about six hours until they spotted his body 30 feet below the surface about 12:30 a.m., police said.
Authorities called Dabney’s death a “possible drowning” but are still investigating. An autopsy was scheduled at the LaPorte County coroner’s office.
