November 15, 2023

On the afternoon of November 15, 2023, searchers from the St. Louis County, MN Rescue Squad and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office located and recovered the body of 27 year old Andrew DeRock who had been missing since October 28th after a canoeing incident on the Minong Flowage in Douglas County.  Ryan Busch, who was also missing in the incident, was located on November 8th.

Land, water and air searches were conducted over the 18 days by multiple agencies to include the St. Louis County Rescue squad, WI DNR, Sawyer County, WI Sheriff's Search and Rescue, Superior Dive Team, Wascott, Gordon and Minong Volunteer Fire Departments, Newbold Fire (Vilas County WI) K9 teams, and Sarah Garfunkel with KERT-K9 Emergency Response Team.  Six different Sheriff's assisted Douglas County throughout the operation.

Weather conditions at the time of the incident were clear, calm with a full moon and are not considered a contributing factor.  Obstacles such as weather , cold water , submerged stumps and thick natural foliage in the search area hindered search and recovery efforts.

Sheriff Izzard would like to thank Sheriff Ramsey for the aid from the St. Louis County Rescue squad.  He would also like to thank the local businesses and the Wascott community who kept the searchers warm, fed and opened their homes to assist this operation.  The families truly appreciate the overwhelming support from the community.