Body of 23-year-old recovered from Belleville Lake

BELLEVILLE, Mich. (FOX 2) - Hours after going missing, family confirmed that divers had recovered the body of Patrick Todd late Monday evening.

The 23-year-old had gone out for a swim with a sibling during a cookout at Belleville Lake. 

But while the sibling returned, Todd never did. 

"Right where the police boat was pulled up, we were literally right to the left of that tree," said Brian Butzin. 

Butzin had only just met Todd earlier in the day, spending much of Memorial Day with him. 

After learning dive teams had began searching for him, he went straight back to Belleville Lake. 

"It touched me because I just spent the afternoon with these strangers out in the community you know?" he said. "Just, being friends - like we created new friends. I know where he got his boat from, we talked about it."

"It’s just really sad you know?" he added.

The Van Buren fire chief estimated there was 200 to 300 square feet where responders searched. 

They first got the call around 4 p.m.

"They went out into the water. One came back and the other lost track of them, so that’s what they’re out there looking for - looking for them at this point," said chief David Mcinally.

Divers battled windy conditions which impacted the current as they did their work. They did so with anxious family members looking on. 

The dive teams also had sight sonar on the boat to help them search underwater.

"Instead of just diving blindly, they’re able to use the boat to search the area for areas they are going to check, and they’ll put divers in the water and check once they found a couple things," said Mcinally.

Butzin guessed the intense wind and subsequent current could have made the waters treacherous to go in. 

"I have a nice-sized boat and even I was struggling with 25 years out on this lake," he said.