An Illinois man
drowned at Indiana Dunes State Park on Tuesday.
The Porter County
Coroner’s Office has identified the victim as Dominic Snovicky, 18, of
Plainfield.
Porter Fire Chief
Jay Craig gave this account of events to the Chesterton Tribune. The
PFD and other agencies responded to Dunes State Park at 10:58 a.m., after
witnesses reported seeing a man struck by a wave and not resurfacing, off
the west end of the beach. This occurred prior to the lifeguards’ going on
duty for the day. “They were just walking out to their stands when this
happened,” Craig said.
The PFD put its
boat in the water and used a 15-foot ski rope to tow a Portage FD diver, who
at 12:30 p.m. found Snovicky at the bottom, in about 10 feet of water, some
20 feet north of the swim buoys, Craig said. Live-saving measures were
immediately commenced when Novicky was brought on board the boat and
continued as he was transported to the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor and an
awaiting ambulance. Novicky was subsequently pronounced dead at 2:12 p.m. at
Porter Regional Hospital, the Coroner’s Office said.
Craig told the
Tribune that the water was closed to swimming at the time of the
incident and signs to that effect were posted in the parking lot and on the
lifeguard stands.
Craig also noted
that, though at the moment there’s a sandbar at the swim buoys--rising high
enough in the water “that you can almost stand on it"--just outside the
buoys the bottom of the lake drops off precipitously. “The divers were
reporting a trough just past the buoys,” he said.
Also responding to
the scene were the Chesterton, Burns Harbor, Crown Point, and Michigan City
FDs, Craig added.