Officials in the Upper Midwest are warning residents of the dangers of venturing out onto frozen lakes and ponds after several people fell through the thin ice, leaving at least one person dead.

Police in the town of Woodbury, Minn.,, said two people, including a teenage boy, needed to be rescued after falling through thin ice on Markgrafs Lake on Monday.

Police said in a Facebook post that they received a report that someone had fallen through the ice around 4:30 p.m. local time, and when officials arrived at the scene, they were told a second person who had gone out onto the ice to help the first victim had also fallen in.

First responders were able to pull that person from the water, but the second person, who was identified as a teenage boy, had gone under the water and ice before they arrived and was not able to be immediately rescued.

Divers eventually located him and both victims were taken to a local hospital. Their conditions were not known as of Tuesday morning.

Police said another water rescue had taken place earlier in the day when a 

To the north, police said the body of an ice skater from Duluth, Minnesota, was pulled from Woodstock Bay in Superior, Wisconsin, after he fell through the ice on Sunday night.

Police in Douglas County, Wisconsin, said 78-year-old Gregory Garmer left his home around 1:30 p.m. Sunday to go ice skating and never returned.

A search was launched, and police said his body was eventually located around 4 p.m. Monday.

There is no reliable “inch thickness” to determine whether the ice is safe, and ice-covered snow should always be considered unsafe.

Anyone venturing onto the ice should take proper precautions, such as using the proper tools and techniques to check ice conditions.

It’s always advised to use the buddy system and to let other people know your plans in case of an emergency.

MINNEAPOLIS — The former owners of a downtown Minneapolis hotel are being sued for allegedly letting former GOP donor Anton “Tony” Lazzaro sex-traffic underage girls at his condominium inside the hotel.

The lawsuit filed in federal district court on Monday claims that the Hotel Ivy and Residences made no effort to protect the teen girls who were sex trafficked by Lazzaro at his condo on the 19th floor of the Ivy Tower in 2020. 

Lazzaro was sentenced to 21 years in prison for sex trafficking five minors ages 15 and 16 when he was 30 years old. Lazzaro paid teenagers for sex with money and gifts, according to federal prosecutors. He also would supply them with drugs and alcohol to the point many were visibly intoxicated and had to be helped leaving the hotel, according to the recent lawsuit.

Since then, the hotel has changed ownership. In a statement to WCCO, the counsel for the defendants in the lawsuit — Heartland Ivy Partners LLC, Ivy Equity Partners LLC, and Wischermann Partners, Inc.  — called the claims “meritless” and said the defendants will “vigorously defend themselves” in court. The counsel also clarified that the Hotel Ivy and Ivy Residences are “separate and distinct pieces of real estate,” and that Lazzaro’s activities occurred at his condo at the Ivy Residences, which is located in the same building as the Hotel Ivy.

Minnesota law requires all owners, managers and on-site employees of hotels in the state to take sex trafficking training annually. The training — developed by the Minnesota Department of Health in partnership with Hospitality Minnesota — includes a virtual presentation, a companion guide, a manager and owner training toolkit and a poster set. The lawsuit claims that despite this training, the staff at Hotel Ivy made no effort to protect the girls trafficked by Lazzaro. 

The front office manager testified during Lazzaro’s trial that the girls who came to see Lazzaro at his condo appeared to be “significantly younger” than 19 and looked closer to 16 or 17, according to the lawsuit. The victims allegedly were instructed to ask the hotel staff to escort them to a private elevator to access Lazzaro’s condo and would often show up late at night.

“There was a pattern of teenage girls arriving late at night to Hotel Ivy, visiting Lazzaro, and leaving a short time later intoxicated. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that something sinister and criminal was occurring,” attorney Molly Burke said.

The lawsuit also claims one girl and her father informed the staff at Hotel Ivy that Lazzrro sex-trafficked teen girls and asked them to help get the girl’s sister out of his condo, but the staff said they could not do anything.

“It’s about the scope and the breadth of this problem, not just in the Twin Cities and not just at the Ivy Hotel, the scene of the crime, but across the state and across this nation,” attorney Jeff Anderson said. “It’s time for all of us to start to see, to start to watch and then do something about it — something the Ivy Hotel staff failed miserably to do.”

FBI agents raided Lazzaro’s Hotel Ivy condo in December 2020. Investigators seized nearly $400,000 in cash, along with foreign currency and bars believed to be gold. They found a GPS tracker, thumb drives, laptops, tablets and more than a dozen cellphones. Agents also confiscated his Ferrari.

The uncovering of Lazzaro’s actions led to fallout within the Minnesota Republican Party. He’d given the party about $190,000 and was connected to the then-chair, Jennifer Carnahan. There were cries for Carnahan to resign from within the Minnesota GOP. She stepped down a week after the charges against Lazzaro were unsealed.

Lazzaro’s co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and one count of obstruction. 

Court documents say Castro Medina recruited and brought the victims to Lazzaro’s condo. Lazzaro would then compensate Castro Medina with payments for rent, tuition, utilities and travel expenses after he had sex with them.

Note: The video above originally aired on Aug. 9, 2023.