RedactedNarrative: On friday july 21st 2017 at approximately 8:06pm, ico dispatch informed me of a boat that had capsized on atwood lake in lagrange county.  We were told that all occupants of the boat were out of the water and were now back at their cottage.  I, along with office responded to the scene.  The results of our investigation are as follows.
  At approximately 7:45 pm on july 21st, two male subjects were occupants of a small rowboat owned by operator that was being used on atwood lake in lange county.  A concerned neighbor saw the two men capsize the rowboat and enter the water at which time notification to ico dispatch was made.  
  According to operator and occupant's account, they both stood up in the small boat and as their weight shifted, water came over the gunwale of the boat causing it to capsize sending them into the water.  Operator assured me that they were both fine and their life jackets had worked as designed because they both popped right to the surface of the water when they fell in.  I asked how they made it back to shore and was told that their friends who were on shore got into their pontoon docked at the cottage and drove out onto the lake to assist them.  I asked who drove out and she said she was on the boat but wouldn't admit to operating out to assist her friends.  She was very reluctant to answer any of my questions with any degree of detail. 
  Through interviewing others on scene, subject2 told me that subject3 had driven the boat out to get her friends from the water.  I was able to detect a strong odor of alcohol as well as bloodshot, glassy eyes in all four people involved at the scene however was not able to determine when they had begun drinking.  When i arrived on scene operator and occupant were both sitting in front of their cottage with open beer bottles discussing what had just occurred with subject3 and subject2 were inside.
  I interviewed subject4 who indicated to me that he witnessed operator and occupant capsize their boat.  He stated that he was the one that got the attention of subject2 and subject3 and told them about their friends who were in the water.  He stated that subject2 and subject3 got into the pontoon and subject3 operated the boat out to the men in the water.  When the boat arrived on scene subject4 stated that they threw two life preservers from the pontoon into the water for operator and occupant to grab onto.  Subject4 stated that all of the occupants on the pontoon then tried to get the sunken rowboat out of the water but were unsuccessful as it was at the bottom of the lake.
  After speaking to subject4, i went back and interviewed operator again and told him that i knew they didn't have life jackets on their boat when it had capsized.  Operator assured me that he did have them on the boat and that when they capsized the life jackets were floating in the water and they were able to grab them which was a different account of what he had told me when i first interviewed him.  
  I cited operator for a pfd violation and explained that i would be back out at a later date to run sonar to locate the sunken boat while ico divers would recover it.  I secured a written witness statement from subject4 regarding what he had witnessed and cleared the scene at approximately 9:30pm.
  I attempted to locate the capsized boat on 7/24/17.  We ran side scan sonar and located two sunken boats that divers confirmed were not the boat belonging to operator.  We were unsuccessful in locating the boat involved in this incident.