A boater is missing in Lake Pontchartrain, and St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s deputies say they will resume their search for him at daylight Monday.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Suzanne Carboni says Causeway police called the STPSO around 8:30 a.m.
Sunday to report an unoccupied boat floating in the lake under the bridge about a mile south of Mandeville. Deputies contacted the boat’s owner, who told them that a friend, Billy Coile, 44, of Mandeville, had borrowed the boat to go fishing on Saturday afternoon. Deputies found Coile’s pickup truck Sunday morning at the Mandeville Harbor.
According to Carboni, marine deputies, Department Wildlife and Fisheries agents, and the United States Coast Guard all searched Coile during the day Sunday, concentrating that search on the area of Lake Pontchartrain between the Mandeville shore and the Causeway Bridge. Authorities suspended the search Sunday night on account of darkness.
If you have any information about Coile or his whereabouts, call the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office at 985-898-2338.
