84-year-old Michigan man drowns in Oakland County lake, marking 11th this year

(CBS DETROIT) - An 84-year-old Michigan man drowned in Oakland County over the weekend, marking the county's 11th drowning in 2024.

Louis William Petro, of Sylvan Lake, was found at 10 p.m. Friday after his unattended boat was found drifting hours earlier, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

Divers from the Oakland County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team and Southeast Michigan Dive Group found Petro in five feet of water about 200 feet from the shore. Officials said that Petro was not wearing a life jacket.

The preliminary cause of death was drowning, but the sheriff's office is still investigating.

Other boaters had seen Petro, a regular boater on the lake, take his 18-foot Glastron boat onto the lake at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. He was alone on the boat.

His boat was then seen unattended at 5:15 p.m. After reporting the drifting boat to authorities, other boaters tied up Petro's boat so it wouldn't impact other boaters.

Authorities found Petro's cellphone, wallet and car keys on the boat. There were no signs of a struggle or foul play, and there were also no signs of alcohol or drug use.

Divers from the Chesterfield Township Public Safety, Macomb County Sheriff's Office, Lapeer County Sheriff's Office, Livingston County, Genesee County Sheriff's Office and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office assisted with the investigation.

Drone and aviation units also assisted along with boats that had side-scan sonar technology.

"In an already extremely tragic summer, the loss of another person while they were enjoying the water is very sad," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. "While we don't know what happened in this case yet, we encourage people if they are not strong swimmers, or they are alone in the water to consider using a floatation device."

There were multiple drownings in Oakland County just last month, including the following:

• A 21-year-old Detroit man who drowned in Kensington Lake on July 27.
• A 20-year-old Detroit man drowned in Rose Township 's Taylor Lake on July 20.
• A 21-year-old man from Highland Township drowned in Townsend Lake in Independence Township on July 16.
  
• A 62-year-old man who fell off a boat on White Lake and didn't resurface on July 6.