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Missing boater believed drowned
Staff Writer Authorities from several agencies are searching for a Twin Cities boater who has been missing on Mille Lacs Lake since Saturday and is presumed to have drowned, the Aitkin County sheriff's office announced Tuesday.
Aitkin County Sheriff Scott Turner said Christopher Lee Shanahan, 46, Blaine, was reported missing about 10:25 a.m. Monday by staffers at Terry's Boat Harbor, where he had a boat slip.
Shanahan had left Terry's Boat Harbor, on the west side of Mille Lacs Lake south of Garrison, sometime on Saturday. Searchers found the boat Monday anchored in about 30 feet of water near the Aitkin County and Mille Lacs County line, about three miles from shore.
Shanahan had been fishing alone in a 1989 27-foot Bayliner fiberglass cabin cruiser boat, Turner said. He was last seen wearing a maroon sweatshirt, black fishing bibs and a blue life jacket.
Air and boat searches failed to locate Shanahan Monday afternoon, the sheriff's department reported. Crews using side-scan sonar searched into the night and failed to locate anything. Searches were halted Tuesday morning due to rough conditions caused by high winds on the lake.
"There were some pretty good swells, about 4-feet high, and that made searching difficult and dangerous," Turner said. He said searches will resume as soon as weather conditions improve.
Turner said there was nothing discovered to indicate how Shanahan may have fallen out of the boat. He noted that it was windy Saturday on Mille Lacs Lake.
Assisting the sheriff's departments of Aitkin and Mille Lacs counties were the State Patrol, the DNR, Itasca County Sheriff's Department and the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department.
MATT ERICKSON can be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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