Crews come up empty in search for missing men

BAUDETTE - Authorities did not make any headway Monday in the search for three missing men whose boat was found capsized Saturday on Lake of the Woods.
The missing men are Keith Ryan Ayers, 28, Cody Joseph Ostendorf, 24, and Justin Kelly Haugtvedt, 22, all of Baudette, according to the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office.
The men were still missing Monday evening, despite search and rescue efforts by multiple agencies that picked up at about 8 a.m. Monday and were slated to go until dark, Sheriff Gary Fish said.
The Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office along with the U.S. Border Patrol and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have been conducting an air, ground and water search for the men around Flag and Oak islands, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The men were last seen around 11:30 p.m. Friday leaving Sunset Resort on Oak Island, near the international border on the north side of the lake.
Weather conditions were clear and breezy near Flag Island Friday, with gusts up to 35 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
A guide discovered the men’s 16-foot Lund boat capsized around 3:30 p.m. Saturday near the northeast corner of nearby Flag Island.
The boaters were nowhere to be found and three life jackets underneath the boat, according to Fish.
Oak Island is east of Minnesota’s Northwest Angle and more than 20 miles north of Long Point on the lake’s southern shore.
Law enforcement plan to pick up search efforts Tuesday morning. They will use more advanced sonar equipment supplied by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Fish said.
“It searches a wider area at once than ours does,” he said.
The families of the missing men are being housed at one of the local lodges while the search is underway, Carla Libby, an aunt of Ostendorf, said.
Between 2005 and 2014, there were five reported accidents on Lake of the Woods resulting in four injuries and three deaths, according to statistics from the U.S. Coast Guard.
In a September 2013 incident, two men died and a third was hospitalized when a faulty boat engine poisoned them with carbon monoxide while boating on the lake.
In June 2008, rough waters and stormy conditions capsized a 26-foot Seaark Voyager.
It tossed the boat’s two elderly occupants overboard and causing them to develop hypothermia, according to the U.S. Coast Guard data.
About $45,000 worth of damages also were caused to the boat.
The statistics show there were 149 deaths from boating accidents between 2005 and 2014 on all Minnesota bodies of water
Data show the most common cause of recreational boating accidents on Minnesota waters is excessive speed.
Alcohol use is most commonly a factor in fatal boating accidents, with alcohol involved in 30 boating deaths.
Poor weather conditions are the second most common factor in fatal boating accidents, with weather a factor in 21 deaths, according to U.S. Coast Guard statistics.