The body found on an island in the Lake of the Woods this week has been identified as a man missing since early October, police said Wednesday.
Body of fishing guide found in Lake of the Woods
The discovery comes six months after three boaters went missing on the massive lake when their boat capsized. The bodies of two of the men were recovered last fall.
April 20, 2016 at 10:41PM
Keith Ayers, 28, and two other fishermen never returned from a late-night trip on the massive lake in Northern Minnesota six months ago. In the days after their boat was found capsized, two of their bodies were recovered. But searchers had found only Ayers' shoe and jacket.
On Tuesday, a resident came across a body along the shoreline of Powder Island, less than half a mile from where Ayers went missing in October and "right on the border waters," said Ronni Grosenick, provincial constable with the Ontario Provincial Police.
Authorities recovered the body on Wednesday and identified it as Ayers, a Baudette resident and fishing guide who grew up in Pennsylvania.
Ayers's mother Carol Derosky, who has trekked from Pennsylvania to Baudette to help with the search, posted the news on Facebook.
"My son Keith has been found," she wrote. "We all have been waiting for this. Our closure has arrived.
"His soul is with us all."
The three men had worked as fishing guides in Baudette, a city of 1,100 residents that bills itself as the Walleye Capital of the World.
The body of Justin Haugtvedt, 22, was recovered in 14 feet of water near Oak Island on Oct. 9. A resident found the body of Cody Ostendorf, 24, two days later, at the northeastern corner of Flag Island.
The sheriff's office announced last week that an air search of the Northwest Angle and surrounding islands for Ayers had revealed "no new leads in the case."
Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168
Republicans across the country benefited from favorable tailwinds as President-elect Donald Trump resoundingly defeated Democrat Kamala Harris. But that wasn’t the whole story in Minnesota.
