Search halted for man missing in lake

The search was canceled Tuesday for a man believed to have drowned in Flathead Lake.

Officials believe that Dennis Silgen, 59, of Pablo died in a sudden storm on the lake Saturday. His wife reported him missing Saturday night. On Sunday, searchers found his capsized 13-foot aluminum boat and his dog, which had drowned.

"All searches are discontinued," Lake County Undersheriff Mike Sargeant said on Tuesday.

Divers and a rescue dog concentrated efforts on the area around Bird Island on the north side of the lake, Sargeant said.

"The area is very deep," he said, at 280 to 290 feet. It also is dark and the lake bed in the area is strewn with debris, he said.

Lake County rescue divers can only go as deep as 150 feet, he said, although some commercial divers are capable of going to 400 feet.

Authorities had hoped to bring in side-sweeping sonar to help search the lake bed. That kind of equipment from Kootenai County in Idaho isn't up and running yet as officials hoped, Sargeant said. There is a possibility that some sonar from Boise, Idaho, might be available soon.

Silgen is a retired firefighter from California, where he is regarded as a hero, Sargeant said. His son, also a firefighter in California, was in Montana on Monday. Silgen's wife and daughter also live in Pablo, Sargeant said.

Two years ago, a couple visiting from Bethel, Conn., died on a fishing trip near Yellow Bay on Flathead Lake after a chartered boat sank.

Two months later, the search for the man's body was canceled.

A deep-water recovery team from Bremerton, Wash., had attempted to locate the man's body in water about 300 feet deep. The team was plagued by turbulence and gave up

Eventually, his family asked that the search be canceled when they believed everything that could be done had been done; they wanted to "let him rest."