Divers Spend Another Day Searching Coconut Creek Lake For Missing Man Daniel Potter
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Divers have spent another day searching a South Florida lake for a Coconut Creek man who went out on his canoe over the weekend and never returned.
Unfortunately, those divers have not found his body or his canoe.
"Where is he?" cried his wife Justine Potter on Tuesday. "It's absolutely awful, nothing I could even imagine. It's a dream that's a nightmare that I haven't come out of yet."
Coconut Creek police said Daniel Potter, 60, was last seen Saturday, around 5:30 p.m., getting into his canoe to go fishing in Coco Lake where he lives.
When he didn't return home, the police were called. Water rescue teams searched for him Saturday night and a helicopter was utilized for a search on Sunday.
"How do you disappear, a man who fishes his whole life, in a canoe or boat, not come back?" Justine asked.
A dive team checked out several places on Monday, but Potter and his canoe have yet to be found. Justine and her daughter, however made a frightening discovery on the shore of Coco Lake. They found his paddle and flip flops. Justine said Dan has heart issues. She's afraid something happened on the water.
"I think the worst. I think he was s fishing, got a little dizzy, maybe stood up, the boat rocked a little and fell, the boat maybe hit him in the head, or he just couldn't keep his head up to swim," Justine said.
Now the nonprofit group "Guardians for the Missing" are joining in the search.
"She has a sonar, that I believe have a 40-foot radius, so goes, can detect if it's a boat or a car," said Shannon Murley with Guardians for the Missing. "And then she has divers that will come out and go into the water and look to see what she found."
They've been searching the water, crisscrossing the lake, hoping to find anything. Meanwhile, Coconut Creek police are going door to door in the Coco Lake Neighborhood, asking for any information.
"If anyone in my neighborhood has seen anything, on foot, a piece of clothing, anything, anything. At this point I'm beyond desperate."
Police said it's a fairly large lake and a pretty populated area.
Anyone with information is urged to give them a call at (954) 973-6700.