As many already know my brother, has been missing since Labor Day, 9/5/2016. Tyler and a close friend began the day with a trip down river at approximately 12:00 noon. They floated down the Platte River for around 2 hours until they stopped on the beach only a couple hundred feet from the opening into Lake Michigan. They decided they wanted to continue to kayak so they put back in near the boat launch on Patte River. Tyler and his friend had no experience out in the open water and things quickly changed. Tyler's friend was about 20-25 feet ahead of Tyler when he had initially capsized. His friend then tried to turn his kayak around to try and help Tyler out, in the process of trying to reach my broher his freinds kayak also capsized. At this point both of them were stuggling with what to do. My brother had his phone that was in a water resistant case on him so he tried to make a call to 911. Tyler unfortunatly did not have service and couldn't not get the call to go through. After they both realized they were out of options as the kayaks were quickly being taken away by the 2-3 foot waves. They decided they were going to head towards shore with their PDF (personal floatation device) in hand. Josh mentioned as they were swimming that they were fighting a strong current that was pushing them away from shore and that he was taking in mouths full of water. The two of them called back and fourth to one another ever so often checking on each other because it didn't take long for them to lose sight of each other. The waves were only growing in size as they fought to reach safty. Tylers friend said that Tyler was the the one that motivated him to believe he could make it! By continually saying "We got this Bro" his friend said Tyler's belief and encouragement is what got him through it! Swimming for what felt like hours, his friend said it wasn't but a matter of a few minutes in between every call out to each other. My brother eventaully stopped responding to Josh's calls out to check to be sure he was still doing good. His freind, once he no longer was getting a response, felt paniced and began calling out for help. He noticed a light from what he believed was a boat and he felt that he was close enough to shore that if he yelled loud enough they could possibly hear him. Josh then was noticed by a fishermen and was thankfully rescued by him. Once being rescued, the fishermen made a 911 call in hopes to get help on the water for my brother. The fishermen said he had tried to find Tyler before heading up to shore with his friend but had no luck. At that time it was nearly 9:00 at night. We have been searching the beaches since Tuesday early morning. We have recovered all 3 PFD that the two of them had with them. One was in the one kayak, one with his friend, and one out near empire bluff. The kayaks were found near Petterson Beach fully submerdged in the water. His freinds sandles have been also recovered along the shore. Tyler's chaptstick that he bought that morning was found on shore as well as a few other things the boys had with them. The major outcome my family would like to see is a change. A change in the law, a change in the education, and a change to the signage that will warn kayakers of the dangers of the open water. By law you are only required to have the specific kind of PFD that the boys had. We hope that this story along with our family's fight will help change those requirements. Education is another task we would like to tackel with hopefully improving warning of the open water ahead. Lake Michigan is the most dangerous of the great lakes. Sadly, growing up here, I never knew that. We are in high hopes to raise money to not only cover funeral costs for my brother but to also help aid in raising awareness for the safety of kayakers in open water.
