Body Found In Minnesota River Likely SD Kayaker
ST. PETER, Minn. (AP) — Nicollet County Sheriff's deputies have recovered a body from the Minnesota River and believe it's a South Dakota kayaker missing since June.
A fisherman found the body in a log jam on the Minnesota River at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, according to The Journal in New Ulm.
Steven Fritze's kayak overturned June 22 in a fast-moving, rising river after becoming entangled in bushes. Two friends made it to shore but Fritze did not. He was visiting family in New Ulm at the time.
A coalition of 50 personnel from emergency response and law enforcement agencies worked together, scouring the river for weeks in boats and on shore with cadaver dogs.
A memorial service for Fritze, a sixth-grade teacher at St. Martin's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown, S.D., was held on July 3.
According to the sheriff's department release, a positive identification is pending results of an autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner.
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