Ottawa County dive teams have found the body of 33-year-old Lee Anderson in Stahl Bayou in northern Ottawa County.
Crews discovered Anderson's body around 8 a.m. Sunday. He was reported missing Saturday night after he fell off of a boat into the bayou.
Members of the Ottawa County and Spring Lake dive teams and the U.S. Coast Guard spent hours searching for Anderson.
Friends who were on the boat say Anderson had been drinking, dove into the water and simply never came back up. They immediately jumped in trying to find him, but after about five minutes, they knew they had to call 911.
Police were confident they would find the body, despite the murky water.
"Stahl's Bayou here especially has got zero visibility," says Sgt. Keith Koeman with the Ottawa County Dive Team. "The bottom is a muck bottom. It's probably about six foot of silt. It just gets deeper and thicker. So it's really difficult. Our divers are having a hard time swimming through it, our lines are getting tangled up in it. It's just a tough area to dive in."
Anderson was a regular driver at Berlin Raceway in Marne, driving the 18 car. He finished second in the track's top Late Model series in 2004.
"Lee had been one of the top competitors in our top division at Berlin Raceway for several years," says Mike Strevel, director of racing operations at Berlin Raceway. "This is a terrible tragedy for this to happen to someone at his young age with a young child."
"We know motor sports are dangerous," says Strevel. "We expect things to happen from time to time. It's part of the sport. But to have a Saturday off and go out and have some fun, relax with the guys,
turns out to be just a terrible tragedy and a surprise to all of us.
"When I heard about it, it knocked the wind out of my sails. Lee Anderson was a premier racer and car builder,"