Catherine Rusoff
A 70-year-old man found dead last week in Lake Erie has been identified as Dave VanZandt, an underwater explorer who disappeared while diving a recently discovered shipwreck, authorities and his nonprofit organization said.
VanZandt was the founder, director and chief archaeologist of Cleveland Underwater Explorers, which studies and documents shipwrecks and other sunken artifacts in the Great Lakes. Its team of researchers, archaeologists and divers focuses particularly on Lake Erie, with the organization based in the area around the lake’s south shore, according to its website.
Although VanZandt’s employee biography lists him as “semi-retired” from his duties with the Cleveland Underwater Explorers, he still participated in some of its projects and on Saturday embarked on his first trip of the year, the organization wrote in a Facebook post announcing his death. While “diving a newly discovered shipwreck,” the Cleveland Underwater Explorers said VanZandt “was unable to return to the boat and suffered a fatal diving accident.” Neither the organization nor the authorities who recovered his body have released details about what exactly happened to him during the dive.
“Our condolences go out to his wife and family,” the nonprofit’s Facebook post read.
The United States Coast Guard initially confirmed that a 70-year-old man was missing in Lake Erie around 4 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon. The agency said crews were searching for a recreational diver in the lake, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Cleveland along the coast. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and a dive team from Erie County eventually joined the search, but local divers from neighboring Lake County were the ones who found VanZandt in the end.
“At 7:45 a.m. local time, Lake County divers recovered a body and confirmed it was the missing man,” the USCG Great Lakes said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday night.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the body as VanZandt, of Lakewood, after it was recovered from the water near Cleveland’s East 9th Street pier, the Fox affiliate WJW reported, citing the coroner. CBS News contacted the medical examiner’s office but did not immediately receive a response.
mae png
giga loterias
uol pro mail
pro brazilian
camisas growth
700 euro em reais
