Lake County – At approximately 1:20 p.m. (CST) today divers with the Indiana State Police recovered a man that purportedly drowns in a pond near the 15.5 mile marker just off the Indiana Toll Road in Lake County.
State police received the call for assistance and dispatched divers to the scene in an attempt to locate the man that was last seen swimming in the pond by his father. Reportedly the father and son had been fishing at the pond.
Sergeant Dan Leslie, a diver with the Indiana State Police Underwater Search Rescue/Recover Team (USRT), entered the water after talking with the victim’s father, and located him moments later. The deceased, Jelani Akil Louis, 20, of Merrillville, was found approximately 120 feet from shore and in 18 feet of water. Louis was underwater for more than one hour before he was recovered and pronounced dead at the scene.
The state police are working a joint investigation on the drowning with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The investigation is ongoing at this time and no other information is available.
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