St. Paul man, 20, drowns in northern Minnesota lake

BALSAM TOWNSHIP, Minn. — A 20-year-old St. Paul man drowned Saturday evening in a northern Minnesota lake, according to the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies were called at about 9 p.m. to Wolf Lake inside Savanna Portage State Park, located about an hour southeast of Grand Rapids, on a report of a missing canoer.

The 911 caller said he was on the lake with his cousin when their canoe capsized, sending both men into the water. The caller said his cousin panicked and went underwater while they were trying to swim back to shore.

A diver team arrived about 20 minutes later, and eventually found the victim, Htoo Shwe, on the lake's bottom.

The sheriff's office says both men had been drinking alcohol before the tragedy and neither were wearing lifejackets.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Shwe's official cause of death as freshwater drowning.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says as of July, at least six people have drowned in state lakes this year.