(WWJ) Three people who disappeared while tubing in West Michigan have been found alive after a large-scale search, according to Michigan State Police.
Police said 28-year-olds Jazmin Hock and Sarah Vida, and Vida's 9-year-old son, Kayden Kovalcik were reported missing Tuesday evening (8/4) after one woman's father went looking for her, and found her vehicle's window broken.
After searching on Thursday, police said two inflatable tubes and footprints were found along the Muskegon River. Police noted that the tubes were inflatable pool floats, and were not river floatation devices.
Friday morning, Michigan State Police Lt. Pat Agema told WWJ's Beth Fisher it remained an active investigation.
"We have search and rescue out looking. We have not located them in the water or through the air," he said. "Last night we had our helicopter out searching with a FLIR (thermal camera), and nothing was located. But it is awful dense around the outside of the river."
Agema said one good thing was that the river is not deep and was not flowing at a fast pace in that area. Still, he asked the public to stay away, and allow police to do their work.
In an update later Friday, MSP said Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officers and a search dog found all three missing people alive, at around 4:40 p.m.
Wood TV reported the three were in a heavily wooded area about three-quarters of a mile from Mill Iron Boat Launch. That’s about 7 miles from Maple Island Boat Launch near the community of Bridgeton, where they went into the water on Tuesday.
No further details were immediately released.
