UPDATE: Police announced Friday night that the body of the missing boater has been found in Lake Erie.
A missing boater whose empty vessel washed up on the shore of Ohio Thursday morning has been identified as a 58-year-old man from Tillsonburg, Ont., Ontario Provincial Police said Friday.
Jack Glaves is described as standing six-foot-two and weighing 200 pounds. He was last observed wearing a peach/orange-coloured “Reese” peanut butter cup T-shirt, as seen in an image released by the OPP.
Glaves set off from Port Burwell’s marina around 2 p.m. on Tuesday and failed to return later that night as expected, police said.
Emergency crews were notified around 11:38 p.m. Tuesday by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) at CFB Trenton.
A search for the missing boater soon commenced involving multiple agencies, including JRCC, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), OPP, Bayham Fire and Emergency Services, and Elgin EMS.
On Thursday morning, Glaves’ boat, a white-coloured 21-foot Striper with a black-coloured canopy, was found by a passerby on the other side of Lake Erie along a rocky stretch of shore in Madison Township, Ohio.
With Glaves still missing, search efforts continued through the day Thursday. Around 9 p.m., JRCC turned the matter over to the OPP as a missing persons case, said Maj. Trevor Reid, senior public affairs officer with the One Canadian Air Division of the Canadian Armed Forces, in an email.
“In total, over 5100 km2 was searched and RCAF, USCG, CCG, OPP, CASARA and Port Burwell FD combined to search for 53 hours by air and water,” he said.
Earlier this week, Reid noted that weather at the time Glaves and his vessel went missing was good.
Speaking with Global News on Friday, OPP Const. Ed Sanchuk said provincial police and the Port Burwell Fire Department were continuing to search the waters for Glaves, and that the JRCC, RCAF and CCG’s involvement had ended.
“We’re hoping to locate Mr. Glaves today, that’s our hope,” Sanchuk said shortly before 4 p.m.
“Right now, we have three OPP marine units out there with our underwater and recovery team, and we are searching the waters of Lake Erie for Mr. Glaves as I’m speaking to you right now.
“We’ll continue to search for Mr. Glaves, and the operation will continue until such time as told otherwise.”
Police ask anyone with information to contact them at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers.
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