Two drowning victims were recovered from Belleville Lake on Sunday morning (Aug. 5), following their disappearance into the dark waters late Saturday night.
The two victims have been identified as Eric Wayne Rose, 28, of Wayne and Heather Nicole Hill, 20, of Canton.
Van Buren Township Police Captain Greg Laurain said VBT Dispatch received a 911 call at 9:56 p.m. Saturday from a man who said he believed two of his friends may have drowned in Belleville Lake.
He said the three of them had been at the beach in Van Buren Park and had walked out on the sand bar and got into a boat that was anchored at a sand bar.
At about 9:40 p.m., the three left the boat and began to walk back to Van Buren Park. They became disoriented in the dark and the two victims decided to walk away from the beach.
When the third subject reached the beach, he heard that his friends were in trouble, but was unable to locate them.
The man had no cell phone so he drove to the party store at the corner of South I-94 Service Drive and Denton Road, where he used a pay phone to call 911.
When he returned to the beach with police, the man was unable to tell exactly where he last saw his friends.
The search began at once, but was called off at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning after thunder storms moved into the area.
On Sunday morning, the VBT Dive Team, with assistance from the Wayne County Dive Team, located and recovered both of the bodies in Belleville Lake near Van Buren Park, the female at 9:30 a.m. and the male at 11:30 a.m.
The two were located within 30 feet of each other in eight feet of water, about 850 feet from the beach.
Stunned family members of Eric Rose gathered at the beach when they heard he might be a victim, but police said the medical examiner would be called first before they could identify the body.
One of those who waited on the beach was a young lady who said she was carrying Eric’s child.
Eric’s sister, who lives in Van Buren Township, said Eric had always been a risk-taker.