The Department of Natural Resources will expand the search for a boat and its operator involved in a fatal crash last week. DNR spokesman Kevin Baskins says nobody’s yet come forward to identify the boat that crashed into another on West Lake Okoboji, killing one man and seriously injuring his wife. “South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri,” he recites. “As everybody knows, the Great Lakes is popular beyond the boundaries of Iowa.” Boats and people move on and off the lakes and he says if the other states can get the word it’ll expand the chance of finding who they’re looking for. He’s talked with the agency’s counterparts in those surrounding states. They exchange information that might help investigations, Baskins says. “It’s common for other departments to exchange information with us, and for us to exchange information with them, when we’re looking for a piece of evidence or a particular individual.” Baskins couldn’t say how many people or boats in a given year cross state lines to take part in summer recreation at the Iowa Great Lakes. On any given weekend during the summer, “It’s a great number,” he says. “The Great Lakes is a very popular destination not only in Iowa but throughout the upper midwest.” Over the weekend the reward for information that’ll help find the boat and its operators increased to 25-thousand dollars.
