Side scan sonar helps recover boat from bottom of Higgins

HEADING FOR SHORE (Above) The Northern Michigan Underwater Recovery team tows the boat owned by Keith Garland of Southgate to the South Higgins Lake State Park. A boat which sank in Higgins Lake June 20 was recovered and returned to its owner three days later.

Laurie Smith Tudor, a volunteer member of the Roscommon County Sheriff's Department's dive team, located the boat using the sheriff's department's side scan sonar. Using her personal boat, Tudor began the search June 21, with the boat's owner, Keith Garland, and his son, Branden M. Docusen, 20, both of Southgate accompanying her the next day. After several hours of searching on the second day, Tudor located the boat in about 55 feet of water, leaning on its starboard side. She marked the site with a buoy.

Divers from Northern Michigan Underwater Recovery descended from the boat, attached airbags to it and inflated the bags to bring the boat to the surface. The boat was towed to the South Higgins Lake State Park, where it was winched onto Garland's trailer.

Northern Michigan Underwater Recovery is operated as a side business by Dean Maeder, who is a sheriff's deputy. Tudor and two other offduty deputies, A.J. Palmerton and A.J. Kory, accompanied Maeder on the dive. All used their personal diving equipment.

BREAKING THE SURFACE (Right) Divers from Northern Michigan Underwater Recovery work to stabilize a boat they raised from a depth of 55 feet with airbags June 23. The boat sank three days earlier after its transom had split in half, allowing water to rush in. The two fishermen aboard the craft were rescued by a nearby boater. (Courtesy photos) The boat sank after Garland and Docusen heard a loud noise at the rear of the craft as they were fishing. They then noticed that the boat's transom had split in half, allowing water to rush in. Larry J. Davis, 56, Garden City, operator of a nearby pontoon boat, heard the fishermen's cries for help and drove his boat to the scene to rescue the men just before the boat sank. Garland and Docusen were treated by Gerrish Township Emergency Medical Services personnel.

Tudor's interest in recovery missions dates back to 1961, when her father, James Parley Smith, and her uncle, John Newman, disappeared while spearfishing on Higgins Lake. Newman's body was recovered the next day, but neither James Smith's body nor his 14-foot aluminum boat have ever been found.

"All my life, my family has had unanswered questions about what happened that night and never had any closure, since his body was never found," Tudor said.

After living in Cincinnati for 30 years, Tudor moved back to Higgins Lake in 2002, the year two men went through the ice of Houghton Lake.

"I sat listening every weekend to reports of the Roscommon County Sheriff dive team searching for them for months," Tudor said. "That…really struck a chord for me; I decided that I wanted to be on the dive team and help search for drowning victims in an effort to help bring closure to the families."

Tudor has been on the dive team seven years and has assisted in some recoveries. She worked with former Sheriff Francis "Fran" Staley to raise money to purchase side scan sonar to make underwater searches less difficult. Donations from the Smith family, the Higgins Lake Foundation, the Higgins Lake Property Owners Association and many of its individual members and the Roscommon County Community Foundation made the purchase possible. Tudor volunteers her time and boat for side scan searches. The side scan unit has been used by the sheriff's department numerous times to search for drowning victims here and to assist sheriff's departments in other counties. Used in both lakes and rivers, the unit reduces the time divers must be in the water under dangerous conditions.

But even with that technology, "it's a big lake," Tudor said, "and when you are only covering a 100-foot-wide path with each pass, it can be a long search."

"It's all about helping other people, and the pleasure I received at seeing Keith's boat burst up out of the lake to the surface cannot be described," she said. "And to be able to tow the boat in and return it to him was incredible."

Tudor said part of her motivation for helping secure the radar unit was to be able to use it to continue the search for her father. She continues to do so when the sonar is not being used for emergencies or training.