The body of a Mississauga man was pulled from Lake Erie near Port Rowan, Ont. Monday morning.
Norfolk County OPP Const. Ed Sanchuk said Walter Santos, 43, was found several kilometres east from where he was last seen in the water Sunday afternoon.
Police said Santos was swimming in the lake in Long Point Provincial Park with his two children around 4 p.m. Sunday when he began to struggle in the water. His kids, aged 12 and 15, had already returned to the shore when they realized their father had slipped beneath the surface.
Witnesses told police they tried to help the struggling swimmer but the current was too strong.
Emergency crews and more than 70 volunteers searched for Santos Sunday afternoon and night, but could not find him.
OPP officers searching along the shoreline on an ATV spotted his body in the water just before 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Sanchuk said OPP are trying to assist Santos’ devastated family.
Santos’ death is the third drowning in Ontario this long weekend. On Sunday, the bodies of two brothers, aged 17 and 22, were pulled from Lake Ontario in Toronto’s east end. Their names have not been released.
