The bodies of a 5-year-old child and a 3-year-old child were recovered on Monday, July 15, following a search and rescue mission for a missing sailboat near Chambers Island, Wis., according to the Door County Sheriff’s Office. The search for their father continues.
Bill Salnick, 32, and his children went missing around 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 13. “The names of the children are not being released pending positive identification and notification of next-of-kin,” per DCSO’s statement.
The 18-foot Gulf Coast sailboat, My Lady Blue, they were sailing in was found around 6:20 a.m., just south of Chambers Island in Gibraltar, Wis., the sheriff's office said. The children's bodies were discovered at around 11:20 a.m., "one mile south of where the boat had been found."
The family left the Oconto boat launch on My Lady Blue around 10 a.m. Saturday. The search for Salnick and his children began after the Oconto County Sheriff’s Office was notified that an overdue boater had left the Oconto Harbor, per the OCSO’s Facebook statement. Oconto Cou -
nty is west of Door County and across from Green Bay.
The United States Coast Guard (USCG), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, City of Oconto Police Department, Oconto County Emergency Management, Marinette County Sheriff’s Office and Dispatch Center and Oconto Fire & Rescue assisted with OCSO’s search.
Beginning Sunday, the USCG searched the Bay of Green Bay and expanded into Door County's jurisdictional waters. The Door County Sheriff’s Office, Door County Emergency Services and Town of Gibraltar Fire Department then joined the search.
The search for Salnick will continue on land, water and air on Tuesday morning.
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Representatives for Door County Sheriff’s Office and the Oconto County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information.
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