DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — The Door County Sheriff's Office has announced the bodies of two young children were found during a search for a boat that went missing on Saturday off the coast of Door County.
- Authorities say a man, 32-year-old Bill Salnik, is still missing and searching will continue through Monday night
- Hear from the Door County Sheriff's Office about their continued search efforts
- See video of the sailboat as it's towed into Fish Creek following its discovery
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
The bodies of two young children have been recovered after a sailboat capsized off of Door County over the weekend. I'm Pari Apostolakos in Door County where the sheriff's department says the search for their father, who was with the kids, could last into the night.
A tragic announcement from the door county sheriff's office following the recovery of a boat which went missing along with its passengers over the weekend.
"At 11:21 this morning the bodies of two young children were recovered in the water about one mile south of where the boat was located," Door County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Patrick McCarty said in a news conference Monday afternoon.
The sheriff's office says the children were three and five years old and the 32-year-old man with them has not yet been found.
Brown County Emergency Management posted a missing person alert identifying him as Bill Salnik.
They say Salnik was last seen with his kids on a blue sailboat in Egg Harbor.
McCarty says they expect to search through the night.
"I mean the water is relatively warm, and we do have warm weather right now," he said. "So we're still in that time frame where somebody could still be located alive in the water."
The sailboat was towed into Fish Creek after it was discovered Monday morning.
I ran into North Carolina native Nancy Oates when first responders were securing the area around Clark Park.
She says her family has vacationed here for generations.
"It was really jarring because when we come to Door County it's just a respite from the rest of the world," Oates said. "It was a poignant reminder that even though we like to think of door county as a place away from all of the troubles of the rest of the world, it's not. Real people live here and live their lives and things happen."
The Door County Sheriff's Office asks any boaters to be on the lookout for life jackets or clothing in the water and for anyone in distress.
