Human remains and a missing plane were discovered in Lake Huron: The bones of one of the passengers from a small passenger jet that crashed into Michigan’s Lake Huron have been discovered seventeen years later.
The remains of a 56-year-old man, identified by the Associated Press as H. Brooke Stauffer Jr. of Washington, D.C. were discovered close to Bois Blanc Island in Mackinac County, the Michigan State Police (MSP) said PEOPLE in a statement on Thursday, Aug. 29.
The crash, according to MSP, happened in August 2007 while Stauffer and the pilot, 52-year-old Karen Dodds, his fiancée, were traveling from Mackinac Island to Bad Axe, which is close to Michigan’s southern peninsula, when the SOCATA TB-20 Trinidad plunged into Lake Huron.
Soon after the crash, there was a “large-scale” search for the aircraft and its occupants. On October 8, 2007, Dodds’ remains were discovered in the Straits of Mackinac, to the east of the Mackinac Bridge.
“Those remains were recovered and later identified as the missing pilot,” MSP stated to PEOPLE. “The search for the passenger and the plane wreckage continued and eventually was called off without finding the wreckage.”
According to MSP, the relatives of the dead asked Great Lake Huron Search and Recovery, a private company, to reopen the inquiry in October 2023, sixteen years after the incident. The search crew found aircraft debris close to Bois Blanc Island by August and notified the authorities.
The MSP’s Marine Services Team gathered evidence from the crash site indicating it was the same jet from the 2007 disaster after the organization reported the wreckage to authorities.
“A set of bone remains was discovered at the crash site while state police divers examined the wreckage. The remains were given to Northern Michigan University’s Center for Forensic Anthropology so that they may be identified,” MSP stated. “Through dental records they were positively identified as being the skeletal remains of the 56-year-old passenger.”
Stauffer was the National Electrical Contractors Association’s director of standards and safety, the AP reported. According to Stauffer’s obituary, his wife Sharon Vought Stauffer passed away before him, and he subsequently “found love again with Karen.”
According to the AP, Dodds was a business entrepreneur who owned a web design and marketing firm in Washington, D.C.
According to the obituary, “He was a prolific writer, having written several technical books, numerous magazine articles, a children’s novel, and a guidebook for Washington, D.C.” Hilary, his daughter, and Christian and Gregory, his sons, are also living.
The search has assisted in “bringing closure” to the relatives of both deaths, according to the police statement.
“The Michigan State Police credits the amazing work done by Great Lakes Search and Recovery to help bring closure to the victims’ families,” stated the MSP.
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