Officials involved with recovery of Cook County man’s body from Lake Superior talk with WTIP

The body of Denny Pechacek, a resident of Cook County, was recovered Thursday morning from Lake Superior. He’d been missing for nearly a week after taking off in a homemade aircraft August 18. His body was recovered just west of Horseshoe Bay near Hovland.

Pechacek’s body was found 400 ft. from the shoreline in approximately 44 ft. of water, according to officials involved with the search and who recovered the body from the bottom of Lake Superior.

The Cook County Sheriff’s office received information early Thursday morning that a helmet belonging to Pechacek had washed up on a beach near Horseshoe Bay. This followed a development that Pechacek’s cell phone last pinged in that same area. Later Thursday morning, just before 11 a.m., his body was located after a three-hour search by Tom Crossmon. Crossmon owns the private search and rescue firm in the Duluth area, Crossmon Consulting. Crossman, who is also a member of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, used a VideoRay Defender remotely operated vehicle in the process of recovering Pechacek’s body , he told WTIP August 25.

Last Friday, Pechacek took to the air in a Six Chuter aircraft at approximately 6:30 p.m. near Flute Reed Road in the Hovland area, which is located about 20 miles from Grand Marais. The aircraft has not been recovered, Crossmon told WTIP Friday morning. Local law enforcement, search and rescue teams from across the region, and volunteers from Cook County and other parts of Minnesota spent nearly six days looking for Pechacek after he was reported missing August 18.

Crossmon spoke with WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs about the process of recovering Pechacek’s body from Lake Superior. Listen to the interview in the audio shared below.

Joe Friedrichs August 26, 2023