Eyewitness gives account of missing Milton boater

LAKE MILTON — Pete Lukanec said he and his girlfriend were driving over the Mahoning Avenue causeway Sunday evening when he saw a boat that he figured had broken away from a Lake Milton dock, but then he saw three men in the water when he pulled over.

Lukanec, 55, of Austintown said the three boaters were probably 300 to 400 yards offshore and he tried to keep them in sight while his girlfriend called for help. He saw one of the men go under and not come back up.

Two of the men were rescued, and the Mahoning County Sheriff Department’s dive team has at least eight divers searching the lake today for the man presumed drowned after being swept overboard with two friends by high winds from Hurricane Ike.

Bill Hack, head of the dive team, said the divers are searching near the Mahoning Avenue causeway. The Ohio Department of Resources has a cadaver dog on the scene.