ODNR to investigate fatal boat accident

Staff report

BAZETTA

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife will investigate the cause of a boat’s capsizing Saturday on Mosquito Lake and drowning of a Pennsylvania hunter.

The man who drowned, Daniel Khalil, 35, was originally from Pittsburgh but recently had moved to the area for a job in the shale industry, said Dennis Lewis, Bazetta fire chief. The other two men who were on the boat with Khalil remained unidentified, but both had hypothermia from their time in the water and were taken to St. Joseph Health Center.

The investigation may never be able to determine exactly what happened, Lewis said. With two survivors, however, authorities might be able to get some answers, he added.

The three men were out on the lake hunting ducks when the boat overturned. The two survivors were found by hunters near West Main Street in Cortland on the eastern side of the lake.

Khalil’s body was found 101/2 hours after the initial call was made to emergency crews about a possible drowning. None of the men was wearing a life preserver at the time the boat capsized.