Officials look for missing man

• Image

Divers with the Jamestown Fire Department search the Jamestown Reservoir for a missing man Monday.

Talk about it

A search for a missing Jamestown man authorities believe may have fallen through ice is expected to continue today, authorities said Monday evening.

The Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a missing person report involving a Jamestown man in his late 40s who was last reported ice fishing on the Jamestown Reservoir Sunday morning. The man, who authorities have not identified pending family notification, did not return to his home Sunday evening.

Chad Kaiser, sheriff of Stutsman County, did not release the location on the reservoir where the man was reported to be fishing.

The Jamestown Fire Department, which maintains a team of search-and-rescue divers, was called to quarters at about 8:30 a.m.

JFD called off the search around 6 p.m.

“Darkness set in and we came up short,” said Jerry Kainz, deputy fire chief.

Twelve members of the Jamestown Fire Department, including two divers in the water and a third safety diver on standby, searched in water with visibility up to about 6 feet, Kainz said.

In addition to the divers, the fire department drilled holes and searched for the man underwater with cameras.

The Buffalo Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross supplied snacks and warm beverages to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and Stutsman County Sheriff’s Department, which searched the land surrounding the water using aircraft and all-terrain vehicles.

Despite the land search, aerial search, dive search and camera search, “we still came up with nothing,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said ice fishing at the Jamestown Reservoir, or any other body of water, is “unstable” right now.

“You can have 4-6 inches of ice right next to an inch of ice,” he said, saying anglers should use caution.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan-Anderson contributed to this report.

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at 701-952-8452 or by email at knorman@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, search