By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Police believe that they have recovered the body of the University of Michigan-Dearborn student who went into the Rouge River last week to rescue a fellow student.
According to a press release from the Dearborn Police Department, the body of the 27-year-old Plymouth man was located in the river not far from the UM-D campus about 11 a.m. May 21.
The release added that the victim’s next of kin have been notified but police have not released the victim’s name yet.
“The entire Dearborn Police Department expresses our condolences to the victims of this tragedy including the student’s family and University of Michigan community,” Police Chief Ronald Haddad said.
Haddad also thanked the groups from surrounding communities who helped the DPD for almost a week during the search and recovery of the student, including the Michigan State Police and Downriver Mutual Aid Dive Team.
Police were first called to the river May 13 by a concerned citizen who said the two students were in the Rouge River behind the Henry Ford Estate and were in distress.
The area behind the estate, which is on Fair Lane Drive near the intersection of Evergreen and Michigan Avenue, has walking paths along the river that are open to the public and that run behind UM-D.
Police arrived and found the woman on shore about 100 yards south of where she was initially observed by the citizen but the male student was missing.
The woman, a 23-year-old Dearborn Heights woman and UM-D student, was transported to an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected].)