Officials recover body of missing teenager in Lake Michigan off Washington Park Beach

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- Dive teams have recovered the body of a teenager who disappeared while swimming at Washington Park Beach in Michigan City on Monday.

A family's worst nightmare - being told that their teenage child has disappeared during a day out at the beach with his friends. Lake Michigan had turned deadly, with 3-6 ft. high waves on Monday.

The three-day search came to a sad ending Wednesday morning, as officials with Michigan City and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources found the missing boy's body around 7:45 a.m. Central time.

"It's an open beach so it's just swim at your own risk, when the lifeguards are gone, you're swimming at your own risk," said Chief Barrett Taylor of the Michigan City Fire Department. 

The body of the13-year-old Michigan City boy, who has not yet been named, was located near rocks on the east side of the pier, 11 feet below the water. 

"He was with a group of friends that entered the water from Washington Park Beach, which, from the beach there, they were out in the water, and he himself started to struggle in the water, one of the friends attempted to make a rescue on him, but due to the conditions at the time, was unable to get out to hopefully rescue him," said Alex Neel, Indiana Conservation Officer.

At the time of the incident, it's believed winds were around 20 miles per hour, with waves around 3 to 6 feet, and a beach hazard in effect for at least a full day, and lifeguards were not on duty.

While searching for the missing teenager, four divers suffered minor injuries, something Neel says isn't common. About 10:44 p.m. on Monday, police posted an update saying dive operations had been suspended "due to hazardous conditions that posed a risk to responder safety."

"Diving is inherently dangerous, and the divers put their lives on the line going in the water, in any circumstance, but very rarely have I ever encountered a diver, let alone four, being injured, on a rescue call like this," said Neel.

Officials resumed their search on Tuesday and again this morning, using boats and sonar.

"We had all but one of our units at the beach, we ended up calling in off duty divers as well, and I myself, one of our off duty firefighters runs a charter business, he offered to take his boat out, me and a couple divers got on the boat with him and we actually went up and down the beach, we were probably on the water for two hours," said Chief Taylor.

The belief is that the teenager got caught in a rip current, and they say this is the first drowning on the Indiana side of Lake Michigan this season.

"On that day, with the conditions, there shouldn't have been anybody in the water, it's not safe, our divers were getting injured out there, so for anybody to be out swimming in that, it just is dangerous," said Neel.

No foul play is suspected, but coroners will still conduct a full report.