Police continue to search Grand Lake for boater
BY SHEILA STOGSDILL World Correspondent
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
2/20/13 at 4:16 AM
Bassmaster Classic coverage: Read preview stories, take a Google Earth video tour of Grand Lake and try to win prizes in the Tulsa World Outdoors Weigh-In Challenge.Original Print Headline: Police continue Grand Lake search for boater
GROVE - On the eve of the largest televised fishing tournament to hit Grand Lake, Grand River Dam Authority police continue to comb the lake looking for a Missouri man who has been missing and feared drowned for more than three weeks.
Michael Shane Chapman, 40, of Joplin, Mo., has been missing since Jan. 27, according to GRDA police. His boat was recovered near the Sail Boat Bridge area about 4:30 p.m. the next day.
Efforts to reach the Chapman family were unsuccessful. A telephone number for Chapman's residence was not working.
Dave Precht, communications vice-president of BASS, organizers of the Bassmaster Classic, said he wasn't aware of a possible drowning in the lake.
This weekend, 53 anglers will be on Grand Lake competing in the 2013 tournament. Other anglers, national media crews and an estimated thousands of daily spectators will also be on Grand Lake for the fishing tournament.
In similar situations in the past, BASS has instructed anglers that if they happen to find a body, they should inform appropriate law enforcement authorities of the location, Precht said in an email.
"The situation on Grand Lake is not expected to impact the tournament," Precht said.
Numerous telephone messages and an email left for Justin Alberty, GRDA spokesman, were not returned Tuesday.
In an email dated Feb. 14, Alberty said there were no new updates on the search for Chapman, but that crews continued to search the waters.
The search crews initially searched a 10-square-mile area from Sail Boat Bridge to Patricia Island and the East Bay area but since have enlarged the scope of their search efforts, Alberty said earlier.
