Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – A man drowned on Big Toad Lake after his ATV broke through the lake ice early Saturday morning.
According to the Becker County Sheriff’s Office, on Dec. 23 at 2:05 a.m., emergency dispatchers received a report of a man who did not return from fishing on Big Toad Lake, about 20 miles east of Detroit Lakes.
The caller said the man left the residence on Friday afternoon and was driving his ATV to his fish house on the lake. After several hours of not returning calls or messages, the caller called the man’s brother to help find him.
The brother located a crack in the lake ice and open water, which caused them to contact the sheriff’s office for assistance.
Becker County deputies and members of the Wolf Lake and Detroit Lakes Fire Departments responded to the scene.
At about 3:22 a.m., first responders in an air boat located the victim and their ATV upside down in about five feet of water.
The victim was rushed to a nearby ambulance where they were pronounced dead.
The name of the victim is being withheld pending family notification and the incident remains under investigation by the Becker County Sheriff’s Office.
Additionally, officials said another ATV and its rider broke through the ice on Middle Cormorant Lake in recent days, but that rider was able to escape the water without injury.
Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander said ice conditions in the lakes area are extremely uneven due to warmer than average temperatures and advised anyone to use extreme condition travelling onto lake ice.
