Drowning Victim
Recovered by St. Louis County, MN, Sheriff's Office Rescue
Squad
June 10, 2005
-- The body of Andrew Lovell was recovered on Saturday,
May 28th, with the assistance of cutting edge underwater
technology. The 30 year old Wisconsin resident had been fishing in
Butternut Lake on May 23rd when his unoccupied fishing boat was
spotted by his fiancé during the evening hours.
Several agencies responded and were faced with searching an area
several acres in size. Divers made 30 separate dives but the large
search area and poor visibility made this work difficult. The Price
County Sheriff's Office contacted the St. Louis County Sheriff's
Office in Duluth, Minnesota for assistance.
"We had recently received a new side scan sonar and were planning
on utilizing it with our drowning recoveries", said Dave Phillips,
St. Louis County Undersheriff. "We have had success with body
recovery and scene investigation with our VideoRay Remotely
Operated Vehicle, and were looking to integrate side-scan sonar
into our operations." The City of Duluth, Minnesota, had recently
assisted the St. Louis County Rescue Squad in obtaining the Side
Scan Sonar by utilizing funds from a Homeland Security grant.
Members of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Volunteer Rescue Squad
and Sheriff's office staff worked with the Price County Sheriff's
Office, Butternut Fire Department and Dive Team in the recovery
effort. One boat was set up with the Marine Sonic Technology, Ltd.
(http://www.marinesonic.com/ ) side scan sonar, while another boat
was equipped with the VideoRay, LLC (http://www.videoray.com )
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV); a small 8 pound underwater robot
equipped with a scanning sonar and video capability. The two boats
worked together in the recovery effort: First, the side scan sonar
was deployed and operators identified suspicious "hits" on the
bottom and relayed this information to the squad members on the ROV
boat.
One image collected by the Sea Scan PC with a 900kHz tow-fish left
little doubt that the victim had been located. The VideoRay ROV
confirmed this, provided video forensic evidence, and led divers to
the victim so they could recover Mr. Lovell. After 4 ½ hours, the
body of Andrew Lovell was located.
"We were glad to have helped on this operation. This was an
agonizing, difficult time for the family and emergency responders",
Phillips stated. Numerous agencies had participated in the efforts
over the past week including the Price County Sheriff, Ashland
County Sheriff, Butternut Fire and Rescue, Butternut Dive Team,
Park Falls Fire and Police.
For more information, contact: Dave Phillips, Undersheriff, St.
Louis County Sheriff's Office, Duluth, MN, Phone: 218.726.2339,
e-mail: e-mail protected from spam bots.
Chris Gibson e-mail protected from spam bots, VideoRay LLC,
Director, Marketing, Phone: 610.458.3000.
