MANITOU BEACH, Mich. — The search has ended for a missing Sylvania father who fell into the water at Devils Lake on Sunday.
Just after 5 p.m. Monday, divers located the body of 39-year-old Thomas Oleary in Devils Lake, according to the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff's office says two families from Sylvania were spending time over the Memorial Day weekend at a cottage they had rented.
On Sunday, as the families were out tubing with their children just before 2 p.m., Oleary was getting ready to go tubing with his daughter when the two of them fell into the water.
He was not wearing a life vest and never resurfaced.
"They have been vacationing out here every year so he was a good swimmer. I'm guessing a combination of turbulence out there on the water and choppiness might have caught him by surprise," Lenawee County undersheriff Jeff Ewald said. "Also, there's a lot of undercurrent. So it's hard to say what happened."
Oleary's daughter was wearing a life vest and is okay, as were the other children.
Despite arriving on the scene almost immediately, rescue crews were unable to locate Oleary. Over the course of the afternoon and into Sunday evening, up to 10 divers searched the lake for the missing man before suspending their search when it became too dark to continue.
Crews resumed Monday with three dive teams on the lake, Ewald said.
Because of the holiday weekend, there were plenty of boats and people in the water. Ewald said that those factors, along with high winds and poor visibility in the water, added additional challenges to the search once Oleary went missing.
Oleary's body was located and recovered more than 24 hours after disappearing.
Authorities say alcohol was not a factor in the drowning.
Ewald told WTOL 11 that conditions on Devils Lake can be deceptively dangerous.
"You never know what the conditions are until you're right into them. It didn't look as bad, it's a beautiful day, it's nice and warm, water isn't that choppy," Ewald said. "However, there's a lot of turbulence underneath the surface."
Devils Lake, which covers approximately 1300 acres, is the largest lake in the Irish Hills area of southeast Michigan.
The search and recovery was a joint effort between the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office; the Addison and Somerset fire departments; and the Toledo Fire, Michigan State Police and Jackson County Dive teams.