Teen brothers drown in Lake Michigan; two others rescued

Two teens drowned and two others were rescued after swimming in Lake Michigan at Warren Dunes State Park Sunday in southwest Michigan.

The group ranged from 15-17 years old and were all from South Bend, Indiana, said Baroda-Lake Township Police Lt. Wesley Koza.

Bystanders were able to quickly save two of the juveniles, but the other two, who were brothers, went under and no one could find them, Koza said.

"The four of them went out in the water, they started having trouble and yelling for help," Koza said. "At that point, two bystanders swam out, one pulled one and another bystander went out and pulled another out of the water. The other two (teens) went under and nobody could see them. We ended up getting out there with our rescue boat, and after approximately 35 minutes, we found both bodies underwater."

The brothers were transferred to Lakeland Hospital, where they were later pronounced dead.  

Koza said 911 calls about drownings in Lake Michigan are unfortunately common, especially during the summer.

"(A drowning is) unusual this early in the year just because you don't have a lot of swimmers because the water temperature is so cold, but we do have water rescues at Warren Dunes State Park during the summer when it's busier," he said. 

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There have been over 1,000 drownings in the Great Lakes since 2010, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.

And the yearly average spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, 37 people died in Lake Michigan alone, 11 more than the annual average. That same year,  Lake Ontario had 16 fatal drownings, about 10 above annual trends.

Just last week, a 10th grader in Ann Arbor drowned in the Huron River, WXYZ-TV  reported. 

Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.