Father drowns while tubing with his daughter over Memorial Day weekend

MANITOU BEACH, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) – An Ohio family is in mourning after a holiday vacation to Michigan ended in tragedy.

According to the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), 39-year-old Thomas O’Leary drowned while he was tubing with his daughter on Devil’s Lake.

Deputies said two families from Sylvania, Ohio, rented a cottage on the lake for Memorial Day weekend. The families were out tubing on Sunday when deputies were called in the afternoon for reports of a possible drowning.

Officials said O’Leary was tubing with his daughter when they fell off the tube. O’Leary, who was not wearing a life vest, never came back to the surface, deputies said.

The child was wearing a life vest and is “fine,” according to deputies.

Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor.

Officials were not able to locate the victim, so multiple dive teams and sonar units were brought in. With their combined efforts, O’Leary’s body was found Monday evening.

The Sheriff’s Office Victim Services unit has been on the scene with the family.

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