annalyzer
02-22-2009, 02:31 AM
http://www.twincities.com/ci_11755321
Family waits for spring to find body of missing angler
Mike Hedin vanished on Lake Mille Lacs on Oct. 29. Weeks of searches turned up nothing before the lake froze. Now, his family longs for spring to end a cruel wait.
By Chris Niskanen
Updated: 02/21/2009 10:11:07 PM CST
Giant pike and trout hang on the walls of Carol Hedin's home in Maple Grove. They are daily reminders of her husband Mike's larger-than-life personality.
"He was always so confident in his outdoors skills," says Carol, pointing to Mike's trophy catches mostly replicas that hang in their bedroom and den. "He was always after big fish, and if you were with him, it was his reward for you to catch them."
Carol looks at the fish and mourns her missing husband.
On Oct. 29, Mike Hedin, a skilled 59-year-old outdoorsman brimming with confidence, drove to Lake Mille Lacs to chase Minnesota's alpha fish the muskie.
He insisted on going alone. He watched the weather and waited until it was a calm, sunny day.
After checking into Grand Casino Mille Lacs Hotel, Mike launched his 18-foot Ranger boat and began working his way toward Indian Point, casting for muskies.
He called Carol on his cell phone about 5:30 p.m.
Mike told her he was still on the water and had seen one muskie, but he was quitting for the day and heading to shore.
"I love you and I'll see you tomorrow afternoon," he said.
It was the last anyone heard from Mike Hedin.
After presuming that he had fallen into the frigid water and couldn't have survived, local and state authorities launched a massive search for his body in Lake Mille Lacs. They looked for more than three weeks, until Nov. 22, when Minnesota's most popular fishing lake froze.
Now Mike's family endures a cruel fate: waiting.
Waiting for winter to end, waiting for three feet of ice to leave Mille Lacs, waiting for Mike to surface and be found.
"There is no word to describe what we're going through," said his stepson, Scott Robbe. "There is no normal in our lives until Mike is found."
NO FOUL PLAY
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren said evidence strongly suggests Mike fell into the lake.
"We don't suspect any foul play," he said.
But the search and recovery of his body has been much different from that of other accident or drowning victims, Lindgren said.
Mike went into Mille Lacs in late fall, when water temperatures were dropping rapidly. When the lake's core temperature reaches 38 degrees, the water becomes a refrigerant and a human body does not produce gas to cause it to rise to the surface. In law-enforcement circles, the science is known as "refloatation."
Other accident and drowning victims in Mille Lacs have always been found, Lindgren said, because their bodies were in warm water.
"We'd have to go to the mid-1950s when we had a body that went down in Mille Lacs in the late fall," Lindgren said.
Mike's body isn't likely to float to the surface until mid- or late May, when core water temperatures reach more than 40 degrees and refloatation conditions occur, Lindgren said.
"Mille Lacs is vast," he said, "but it does give up its dead."
Lindgren's office has been able to reconstruct Mike's movements the day he disappeared.
Surveillance cameras show Mike left the Grand Casino hotel at 2:14 p.m. Oct. 29 and drove to the nearby Shaw Bosh Kung public access (also known as Cash's Landing) and launched his boat. The landing is in the southwest corner of the lake. It was an area Mike fished frequently.
By examining the GPS on his boat, authorities know Mike launched about 2:22 p.m. Lindgren said he drove and timed the route from the hotel, and it corresponds with the time when Mike's GPS was turned on.
His GPS also showed that Mike headed toward Indian Point and he fished the area until at least 4:27 p.m., when he pushed a button on the GPS to mark his location. Lindgren said the GPS "waypoint" would be consistent with an angler seeing a muskie and pushing a button to mark the location.
After that, the GPS shows Mike going toward Rainbow Island. Then the GPS shows Mike's boat moving toward the center of the lake, about 7.5 miles from Rainbow Island. The GPS trail ends there.
With his phone call to Carol at 5:27 p.m., authorities know Mike was OK up to that point.
Mike's boat was spotted at 11 a.m. the next day. It had washed up on the lake's north shore near the Red Door Resort.
Mike's trolling and main motors were off and in operational position. His nighttime running lights were in place, but turned off. The gas tank was full and the batteries charged. His fishing rods were accounted for; one was strung and leaning against a seat. The GPS was turned off. His life jacket was on board along with his cell phone. His anchors were accounted for.
His vehicle and trailer were spotted overnight at the boat access, authorities said.
Lindgren cannot say how or when Mike might have gone into the water.
"There are a million scenarios," he said.
Carol said her husband typically did not wear his life jacket. She said he might have slipped and fallen into the lake while doing something routine, such as lifting the trolling motor or inserting the pole for his running lights.
At 6 feet 1 and 245 pounds, Mike was a big, strong man. He had no heart problems and had been to the doctor only a handful of times in his life, Carol said.
But experts say it can be difficult to climb into a boat, even in warm water.
The water was 47 degrees. At that temperature, victims can die within minutes from cardiac arrest or aspirating sucking in water as part of the body's reflex to the cold water, said Tim Smalley, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' water-safety expert.
If a person can stay afloat in waters between 40 and 50 degrees, he can survive up to three hours before hypothermia sets in, Smalley said.
A MAN WHO LOVED TO FISH
Carol and Mike Hedin had been married for 17 years on Jan. 11. They met while she was a bartender at a Holiday Inn and he began frequenting the hotel bar, sometimes sitting with a few bellicose friends in what Carol called "the ahole corner."
He eventually charmed her with his confidence and wit, and they married. Carol described him as a charismatic and generous man.
"He had a presence, that's for sure," Carol said.
Mike retired two years ago as president of a debt-collection company. He loved fine clothes and wasn't afraid to push the fashion envelope.
"He once bought a pair of pink, white and blue loafers," Carol said with a laugh. "I have to say, I did fall in love with those loafers."
"He was a real clothes horse,'' said his daughter, Theresa Valdina, who learned to fish at her father's elbow. "Fancy shoes, cologne the whole thing. My father was really fashionable."
His passion, though, was fishing, and he jumped at any chance to take a friend or family member out on the water and help them land a big one.
His son-in-law, Dino Valdina, said Mike's skill was such that he caught fish when others couldn't, even fishing guides. Mike devoted a workshop in his basement to making his own muskie lures and was always excited to share his knowledge.
Valdina said Mike taught him about the outdoors, and he looked up to him as a father figure.
"He gave me the passion for being on the water," Valdina said.
THE SEARCH
On Oct. 30, the day Mike's boat was found, the Hedin family began making daily trips to Lake Mille Lacs to meet with sheriff's office searchers and conduct their own search. Locals said the body likely would wash up on the northwest shore of the lake, so Carol and family members would often comb the beaches there.
Meanwhile, Aitkin and Mille Lacs county authorities launched a multi-agency search that lasted 24 days. The DNR and the State Patrol used airplanes and helicopters to scan the lake. St. Louis, Crow Wing and Hennepin counties pitched in manpower and equipment, including side-searching sonar used after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. Divers and cadaver-searching dogs were brought in. Lakeshore owners were asked to report any objects on the lake.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered help from the Minnesota National Guard, which supplied a Black Hawk helicopter and crew to fly the lake.
Lindgren said the search was handicapped by the fact there were no witnesses and the lake is large 128,000 acres. Divers also encountered poor visibility in silted areas.
One day, searchers found a promising "point of interest," but it turned out to be a wooden boat that had sunk in the 1970s.
As the search moved into mid-November and water temperatures dropped into the 30s, Lindgren knew the odds of finding Mike were dimming.
"It's a risk you're taking, going out alone on cold water with no life jacket on," Lindgren said. "A lot of people don't understand the idea of refloatation. You don't come up in cold water. We wish people would wear a life jacket when they venture out on cold water, at least for their family's sake.
"You might succumb to the cold water, but your body will be found," Lindgren said.
During the search, the Hedin family received comfort from people around Mille Lacs.
A Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe member one day offered his family's prayers. A construction company donated sandwiches. Strangers around Mille Lacs offered their condolences and sympathy, Scott Robbe said.
"It was incredible how the local community took us in," Robbe said. "I remember a waitress was in tears, hoping there would be some resolution for us. Their hearts poured out to us."
"What tore your guts out was the day we drove up and the lake was frozen," Carol said. "You knew nothing could be done."
THE FUTURE
Carol said Mike's disappearance is becoming a financial strain. She is struggling to pay some bills, and their finances and insurance are in limbo until his body is found. She has hired an attorney and hopes to petition a court to collect on some of his life insurance, which is legal under state law. At the least, she is hoping to get a "livable stipend" until Mike is found, she said.
In the spring, Carol and family members will begin making the daily drive to Lake Mille Lacs to resume their search and get updates from Lindgren.
While the ice may leave Mille Lacs sometime in late April, refloatation conditions may not be right until mid-May, Lindgren said. He is determined to find Mike.
"We realize the family can't find closure until there is a body," Lindgren said.
Hedin's family is well versed in refloatation science, and they are aware it could be late spring before Mike is found.
"I'm comfortable with the fact that the last thing he said to me was, 'I love you,' " Carol said. "But we need to bring him home. We need him home with us."
Family waits for spring to find body of missing angler
Mike Hedin vanished on Lake Mille Lacs on Oct. 29. Weeks of searches turned up nothing before the lake froze. Now, his family longs for spring to end a cruel wait.
By Chris Niskanen
Updated: 02/21/2009 10:11:07 PM CST
Giant pike and trout hang on the walls of Carol Hedin's home in Maple Grove. They are daily reminders of her husband Mike's larger-than-life personality.
"He was always so confident in his outdoors skills," says Carol, pointing to Mike's trophy catches mostly replicas that hang in their bedroom and den. "He was always after big fish, and if you were with him, it was his reward for you to catch them."
Carol looks at the fish and mourns her missing husband.
On Oct. 29, Mike Hedin, a skilled 59-year-old outdoorsman brimming with confidence, drove to Lake Mille Lacs to chase Minnesota's alpha fish the muskie.
He insisted on going alone. He watched the weather and waited until it was a calm, sunny day.
After checking into Grand Casino Mille Lacs Hotel, Mike launched his 18-foot Ranger boat and began working his way toward Indian Point, casting for muskies.
He called Carol on his cell phone about 5:30 p.m.
Mike told her he was still on the water and had seen one muskie, but he was quitting for the day and heading to shore.
"I love you and I'll see you tomorrow afternoon," he said.
It was the last anyone heard from Mike Hedin.
After presuming that he had fallen into the frigid water and couldn't have survived, local and state authorities launched a massive search for his body in Lake Mille Lacs. They looked for more than three weeks, until Nov. 22, when Minnesota's most popular fishing lake froze.
Now Mike's family endures a cruel fate: waiting.
Waiting for winter to end, waiting for three feet of ice to leave Mille Lacs, waiting for Mike to surface and be found.
"There is no word to describe what we're going through," said his stepson, Scott Robbe. "There is no normal in our lives until Mike is found."
NO FOUL PLAY
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren said evidence strongly suggests Mike fell into the lake.
"We don't suspect any foul play," he said.
But the search and recovery of his body has been much different from that of other accident or drowning victims, Lindgren said.
Mike went into Mille Lacs in late fall, when water temperatures were dropping rapidly. When the lake's core temperature reaches 38 degrees, the water becomes a refrigerant and a human body does not produce gas to cause it to rise to the surface. In law-enforcement circles, the science is known as "refloatation."
Other accident and drowning victims in Mille Lacs have always been found, Lindgren said, because their bodies were in warm water.
"We'd have to go to the mid-1950s when we had a body that went down in Mille Lacs in the late fall," Lindgren said.
Mike's body isn't likely to float to the surface until mid- or late May, when core water temperatures reach more than 40 degrees and refloatation conditions occur, Lindgren said.
"Mille Lacs is vast," he said, "but it does give up its dead."
Lindgren's office has been able to reconstruct Mike's movements the day he disappeared.
Surveillance cameras show Mike left the Grand Casino hotel at 2:14 p.m. Oct. 29 and drove to the nearby Shaw Bosh Kung public access (also known as Cash's Landing) and launched his boat. The landing is in the southwest corner of the lake. It was an area Mike fished frequently.
By examining the GPS on his boat, authorities know Mike launched about 2:22 p.m. Lindgren said he drove and timed the route from the hotel, and it corresponds with the time when Mike's GPS was turned on.
His GPS also showed that Mike headed toward Indian Point and he fished the area until at least 4:27 p.m., when he pushed a button on the GPS to mark his location. Lindgren said the GPS "waypoint" would be consistent with an angler seeing a muskie and pushing a button to mark the location.
After that, the GPS shows Mike going toward Rainbow Island. Then the GPS shows Mike's boat moving toward the center of the lake, about 7.5 miles from Rainbow Island. The GPS trail ends there.
With his phone call to Carol at 5:27 p.m., authorities know Mike was OK up to that point.
Mike's boat was spotted at 11 a.m. the next day. It had washed up on the lake's north shore near the Red Door Resort.
Mike's trolling and main motors were off and in operational position. His nighttime running lights were in place, but turned off. The gas tank was full and the batteries charged. His fishing rods were accounted for; one was strung and leaning against a seat. The GPS was turned off. His life jacket was on board along with his cell phone. His anchors were accounted for.
His vehicle and trailer were spotted overnight at the boat access, authorities said.
Lindgren cannot say how or when Mike might have gone into the water.
"There are a million scenarios," he said.
Carol said her husband typically did not wear his life jacket. She said he might have slipped and fallen into the lake while doing something routine, such as lifting the trolling motor or inserting the pole for his running lights.
At 6 feet 1 and 245 pounds, Mike was a big, strong man. He had no heart problems and had been to the doctor only a handful of times in his life, Carol said.
But experts say it can be difficult to climb into a boat, even in warm water.
The water was 47 degrees. At that temperature, victims can die within minutes from cardiac arrest or aspirating sucking in water as part of the body's reflex to the cold water, said Tim Smalley, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' water-safety expert.
If a person can stay afloat in waters between 40 and 50 degrees, he can survive up to three hours before hypothermia sets in, Smalley said.
A MAN WHO LOVED TO FISH
Carol and Mike Hedin had been married for 17 years on Jan. 11. They met while she was a bartender at a Holiday Inn and he began frequenting the hotel bar, sometimes sitting with a few bellicose friends in what Carol called "the ahole corner."
He eventually charmed her with his confidence and wit, and they married. Carol described him as a charismatic and generous man.
"He had a presence, that's for sure," Carol said.
Mike retired two years ago as president of a debt-collection company. He loved fine clothes and wasn't afraid to push the fashion envelope.
"He once bought a pair of pink, white and blue loafers," Carol said with a laugh. "I have to say, I did fall in love with those loafers."
"He was a real clothes horse,'' said his daughter, Theresa Valdina, who learned to fish at her father's elbow. "Fancy shoes, cologne the whole thing. My father was really fashionable."
His passion, though, was fishing, and he jumped at any chance to take a friend or family member out on the water and help them land a big one.
His son-in-law, Dino Valdina, said Mike's skill was such that he caught fish when others couldn't, even fishing guides. Mike devoted a workshop in his basement to making his own muskie lures and was always excited to share his knowledge.
Valdina said Mike taught him about the outdoors, and he looked up to him as a father figure.
"He gave me the passion for being on the water," Valdina said.
THE SEARCH
On Oct. 30, the day Mike's boat was found, the Hedin family began making daily trips to Lake Mille Lacs to meet with sheriff's office searchers and conduct their own search. Locals said the body likely would wash up on the northwest shore of the lake, so Carol and family members would often comb the beaches there.
Meanwhile, Aitkin and Mille Lacs county authorities launched a multi-agency search that lasted 24 days. The DNR and the State Patrol used airplanes and helicopters to scan the lake. St. Louis, Crow Wing and Hennepin counties pitched in manpower and equipment, including side-searching sonar used after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. Divers and cadaver-searching dogs were brought in. Lakeshore owners were asked to report any objects on the lake.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered help from the Minnesota National Guard, which supplied a Black Hawk helicopter and crew to fly the lake.
Lindgren said the search was handicapped by the fact there were no witnesses and the lake is large 128,000 acres. Divers also encountered poor visibility in silted areas.
One day, searchers found a promising "point of interest," but it turned out to be a wooden boat that had sunk in the 1970s.
As the search moved into mid-November and water temperatures dropped into the 30s, Lindgren knew the odds of finding Mike were dimming.
"It's a risk you're taking, going out alone on cold water with no life jacket on," Lindgren said. "A lot of people don't understand the idea of refloatation. You don't come up in cold water. We wish people would wear a life jacket when they venture out on cold water, at least for their family's sake.
"You might succumb to the cold water, but your body will be found," Lindgren said.
During the search, the Hedin family received comfort from people around Mille Lacs.
A Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe member one day offered his family's prayers. A construction company donated sandwiches. Strangers around Mille Lacs offered their condolences and sympathy, Scott Robbe said.
"It was incredible how the local community took us in," Robbe said. "I remember a waitress was in tears, hoping there would be some resolution for us. Their hearts poured out to us."
"What tore your guts out was the day we drove up and the lake was frozen," Carol said. "You knew nothing could be done."
THE FUTURE
Carol said Mike's disappearance is becoming a financial strain. She is struggling to pay some bills, and their finances and insurance are in limbo until his body is found. She has hired an attorney and hopes to petition a court to collect on some of his life insurance, which is legal under state law. At the least, she is hoping to get a "livable stipend" until Mike is found, she said.
In the spring, Carol and family members will begin making the daily drive to Lake Mille Lacs to resume their search and get updates from Lindgren.
While the ice may leave Mille Lacs sometime in late April, refloatation conditions may not be right until mid-May, Lindgren said. He is determined to find Mike.
"We realize the family can't find closure until there is a body," Lindgren said.
Hedin's family is well versed in refloatation science, and they are aware it could be late spring before Mike is found.
"I'm comfortable with the fact that the last thing he said to me was, 'I love you,' " Carol said. "But we need to bring him home. We need him home with us."