Woman spots man's body on Lake Michigan beach during morning coffee

Published

2 years ago

February 14, 2024

Woman spots man's body on Lake Michigan beach during morning coffee

GANGES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXMI) — A daily cup of coffee on the back deck turned into an unnerving discovery on the shores of Lake Michigan in Allegan County.

Sally Tyler was sitting on the back deck of her home with her dog Cody early Wednesday when something on the beach caught her eye.

Woman spots man’s body on Lake Michigan beach during morning coffee

“I thought it was an animal on the beach, and then I kind of realized it wasn’t,” Tyler told FOX 17, WXYZ’s Grand Rapids sister station, just after noon Wednesday.

She decided to walk down to the beach, not getting to close, and try to convince her brain she was truly seeing the body of a man.

“Then, I immediately ran up and called the police,” Tyler said.

The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office responded to the portion of private beachfront property off of Lakeshore Drive between West Side County Park and Pier Cove Park in Ganges Township.

Tyler said it wasn’t until deputies began arriving on scene that she knew for sure what she had discovered.

“So, have you come to terms with the reality of it all yet?” FOX 17 asked her Wednesday, just minutes after investigators cleared the area.

“I don’t know… the police said they would call me and give me some closure on it once they can identify whatever happened possibly,” she replied.

“So, hopefully I do hear something because it was a bizarre situation.”

WXMI/Michael Martin

View from the deck of a resident who spotted a body floating in Lake Michigan on February 14.

The sheriff’s office says investigators could not identify the man right away.

He was found completely unclothed, aside from wearing a size 12 pair of brown Converse All Star shoes/boots.

Detectives are treating the death as suspicious but say no “clear” signs of foul play were initially evident on the man’s body.

They said Wednesday that it appeared he had been in the water for “some time” before finally washing ashore.

Crews removed the body from the beach Wednesday morning with the help of Michigan State Police.

While the sheriff’s office has not yet been able to identify the man, a medical examiner will work out who he was and how he died.

If you believe you have information relevant to this case, you are asked to contact the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office at 269-673-0442.

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Michigan man pleads guilty to using fake Social Security cards in $550K fraud scheme

Published

9 hours ago

April 17, 2026

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Michigan man pleads guilty to using fake Social Security cards in 0K fraud scheme

A Southfield man has pleaded guilty to illegally possessing driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and equipment to create fake documents, federal prosecutors said.

Jerome Antwan Andrews, 41, pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing the driver’s license information and Social Security numbers of more than 250 people in a scheme that caused more than $550,000 in fraud losses, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said.

As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors say Andrews admitted to having an embosser, a laminator, a card cutter and an ID card printer and admitted that his business model was aimed at creating and selling fake Social Security cards and driver’s licenses in the names of real people.

“Jerome Antwan Andrews and his criminal associates stole more than $1.5 million by submitting hundreds of fraudulent claims to a pandemic program intended to help unemployed American workers. Today’s conviction of Andrews represents yet another attack in our war against fraud. It sends a stern warning that my office will relentlessly investigate those bad actors greedily lining their pockets with U.S. taxpayer funds,” said Anthony P. D’Esposito, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

Andrews faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine or twice the pecuniary gain or loss, according to prosecutors. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of Labor investigated Andrews’ case.

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Northern Michigan lake drained after dam failure in Alcona County

Published

21 hours ago

April 17, 2026

Press Room

Northern Michigan lake drained after dam failure in Alcona County

Barton City — This week’s flooding across northern Michigan is being blamed for the collapse of a privately owned dam in Alcona County, washing away the small lake that the structure held back.

Buck’s Pond was reduced to mud this week after its privately owned dam failed, destroying the gravel road over the 94-year-old dam structure.

The dam burst around 8 p.m. Monday, sending all of the water in Buck’s Pond north through Comstock Creek to Hubbard Lake, a large recreational boating lake in Alcona County that’s ringed by summer cottages and year-round homes, said James Plohg, who owns property on the lake.

“As it was rising, it started like just washing little parts of it away,” Plohg told The Detroit News on Thursday. “And then it just got so big that it wasn’t able to contain it. And it just opened up.”

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy classifies the Buck’s Pond Dam as a low-hazard dam because its rupture has little downstream impact on other water infrastructure and property.

Lakes in the Green Association, a local homeowners group, owned the dam, according to state records.

It was last inspected in August 2017, according to records in the Michigan Dam Inventory, the state’s catalog of data on the ownership, age and condition of 2,552 dams scattered across Michigan’s Lower and Upper peninsulas.

State records indicate the dam was in “satisfactory” condition, able to withstand a 100-year flood and that it “meets applicable tolerable risk criteria.”

Plohg said the demise of the Buck’s Pond Dam will leave a hole in his and his neighbors’ remote corner of rural Alcona County, located between Oscoda and Alpena.

Plohg said he’s been in contact with state lawmakers who represent Alcona County, hoping they could secure state funding to rebuild the dam — and restore Buck’s Pond.

“It was beautiful,” Plohg told The News. “I mean, people come here to fish. There’s the beach over there. Little kids came to swim, picnics, meetings, a lot of boats, pontoons go around the island. We had (boat) parades on the lake. It’s not much of nothing right now.”

“This doesn’t describe how nice it used to be,” Plohg added.

clivengood@detroitnews.com

DavidG@detroitnews.com

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Michigan man didn’t turn right on red. So another driver hit him with ax, police say

Published

1 day ago

April 16, 2026

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Michigan man didn’t turn right on red. So another driver hit him with ax, police say

70-year-old man arrested, faces assault charge

GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich. – A Michigan man was struck with an ax after not turning right at a red light at an intersection on Tuesday, according to police.

Just before 2 p.m. on April 14, a 74-year-old man driving near the intersection of Woodmere and Hannah in Grand Traverse County sat through a red light instead of turning right, Local 4’s NBC affiliate in Traverse City reported.

Police said a 70-year-old Traverse City man was in a car behind the 74-year-old man and followed him to the Traverse Area District Library,

Once the 74-year-old man got out of his car, the 70-year-old man allegedly approached him and attacked him with an ax, injuring the 74-year-old in his left upper arm. Both men then left the area.

The 74-year-old man drove himself to a local hospital and is being treated for his non-life-threatening injuries.

The 70-year-old man was later arrested at his home and faces a charge of assault to do great bodily harm.