Body Of Missing Man Recovered In Fox Lake

The body of a Fox Lake man who fell into the water April 21 has been recovered.

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement Friday (5/6/2022) saying the body of the man was recovered just before 8:00 p.m. Thursday night (May 5, 2022).

The male was turned over to the Dodge County Medical Examiner’s Office after the recovery was made.  While preliminary identification has been made, no official identity release will be made to the public until a final positive identification can be made by the Dodge County Medical Examiner’s Office.

This case remains under investigation by both the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office and the Dodge County Medical Examiner’s Office.

To recap the search efforts, at 12:23 PM on April 21, 2022, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office responded to a capsized canoe.  One female, who was identified as Alicia Johnson, 34, of rural Fox Lake was rescued, while the male subject was not located.  

Weather conditions that day included high winds, which became increasingly stronger starting at 10:30 AM that morning, gusting to 30 mph winds.  This created dangerous conditions for anyone in small watercraft.  There were no personal floatation devices (PFD) on the canoe.

That afternoon an extensive search began.  Unfortunately, the dive teams that responded were unable to locate the subject and visibility in the water was reported to be “zero”.  Weather conditions for several days following this event made searches dangerous and difficult for dive personnel.  

When weather conditions improved, dive operations continued at the request of the sheriff. According to Sheriff Dale Schmidt, dive teams always have the final determination on if divers will go into the water out of the safety of the divers and those teams deemed that several of the following days were unsafe for diving.

Regardless, the sheriff’s office or agents of the sheriff’s office were on the water everyday since April 21 conducting surface searches and underwater searches with sonar devices from a variety of different resources, including a side-scan device on the sheriff’s office boat.  Points were marked for divers to later go back and search.

Sheriff Schmidt said, “This is certainly a very emotional and difficult incident for all involved and we are thankful for all who assisted in this lengthy search.”

He also thanked the many people who assisted in the search and eventual recovery of this missing subject.  Those entities include:

• Dodge County Sheriff’s Office staff
• Dodge County Sheriff’s Office Chaplain
• Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team
• Columbia County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team
• Marathon County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team
• Brown County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team
• Beaver Dam Fire Department
• Beaver Dam Fire Department Dive Team
• Beaver Dam Fire Department Paramedics
• Campbellsport Fire Department Dive Team
• Fox Lake Fire Department
• Fox Lake EMS
• Fox Lake Police Department
• Waupun Fire Department
• Hustisford Fire Department
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Numerous volunteer groups
• Dodge County Medical Examiner’s Office