NEWS RELEASE
SAULT STE. MARIE POLICE SERVICE
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Using an autonomous underwater vessel, officers with the Michigan State Police Marine Services Team Special Operations Division located what they believed to be a snow machine in the navigation channel of the St. Marys River just south of the U.S. border.
The item was discovered at approximately 7:30 p.m. on May 3, 2017 and conditions were not ideal to conduct a further search at that time. Today, a dive team with O.P.P. Underwater Search and Recovery Unit entered the water and confirmed that the object is a snow machine in 47 feet of water.
As a result of this find, the search recovery operation for missing person John Szczepanik will focus in that area utilizing dive teams to search the water. 45-year-old John Szczepanik was last seen on Mar. 5, 2017 riding his snow machine on the ice near open water by Pine Shores Drive.
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