Missing Kayaker Yet to be Located

UPDATE: The Coast Guard suspended its search Thursday morning for a man who went missing Wednesday evening while kayaking in Lake Michigan near Port Washington, Wisconsin.

ORIGINAL: A West Bend man is missing after going kayaking in Lake Michigan.  Coast Guard and local emergency crews have been searching the waters of Lake Michigan near Port Washington, Wisconsin, since the man went missing Wednesday afternoon.

The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s office says two West Bend brothers, 24-year-old Kevin R. Beilman, and 27-year-old Marcus J. Beilman, 27, left from  Port Washington's South Beach for an afternoon of kayaking in Lake Michigan.   Winds Wednesday afternoon were recorded as high as 30 MPH and waves were 5- to 8-feet high.  At some point, Marcus Beilman’s kayak overturn in the high wind and waves.  Kevin Beilman lost sight of his brother and the kayak.   Kevin Beilman was able to swim to shore at Port Washington’s Coal Dock Park.   The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s office was contacted and when Kevin Beilman was located, he was suffering from exposure that required treatment at a local hospital.

When Beilman reported that his brother was missing in the lake, the Port Washington Fire Department was contacted and a search began for the missing kayaker.  The U.S. Coast Guard was notified and a 45-foot response boat from Sheboygan was dispatched to join in the search.  A helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Michigan, was also launched to assist by searching from the air. 

A sheriff's department boat crew conducted a shoreline search near the area where the men launched their kayaks and a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fixed-wing aircraft was called on to assist with the search.

Searchers have yet to find the missing man.