What lies beneath

Tom Stempien, Lana's father: We kept calling and calling and calling on her cell phone, calling Chuck’s phone.

It was Friday, August 12^th and for the first time since his daughter Lana and her boyfriend Chuck Rutherford had set out on a boating trip, Tom Stempien felt the deep pangs of parental worry. It had been almost 24 hours since he’d heard from his daughter.

Tom Stempien: I said, “We better call the Coast Guard, something’s wrong.”

Until then, Lana’s dad had no reason to be concerned. Just as they’d promised, Lana and Chuck had been checking in with her parents every day. 

On Wednesday, they called from a marina in Oscoda, where they’d stopped to tie up for the night.

And on Thursday, Lana called home just before noon.

Tom Stempien: She says “Everything’s going good, dad.” I should be up in Mackinac in about two or three hours.” I said “Good.” I said “Boy, you’re making good time.”

It would be the last time Tom Stempien talked to his daughter.

As he’d later learn, half an hour after making that call, Lana and Chuck stopped here in Presque Isle to gas up. 

And at 1:44 p.m., the last time anyone in Lana’s family would hear from her, she made a chatty, 14-minute call to her Aunt Pat in Florida.

Pat Koczara, Lana’s aunt and godmother: She was in very good spirits. I didn’t hear anything wrong in her voice.

But sometime between that phone call and 10 o’clock Friday morning, something did go terribly wrong.

Boater Tom Behan was on the lake that morning, struggling against the powerful winds and high waves that had come in with a late night storm—and he was stunned to spot a boat much smaller than his battling the turbulent water.

Tom Behan, boater on the lake that morning: The boat was bobbing around like a cork.  I made a remark that “boy, that guy, there’s a brave soul out here in that size boat in a five foot sea.” I said, “I think the boat’s in trouble!”

Behan called the Coast Guard. 

Jim Renkes, St. Ignace Coast Guard: We tried to use our loud hailer to see if we could get any sign of people on board the boat. The boat was empty. There was nobody on it.

It was “Sea’s Life”—Lana’s boat.

And not only was her boat abandoned, it was way off course , the engine idling in neutral, the stereo still playing, just adrift in the middle of the lake.

Renkes: That’s where we found the boat: in just open water.

When Lana’s dad got the news, his heart sank.

Tom Stempien: Oh. I says “You found the boat and nobody on it? Oh my god, I used to tell her ‘don’t leave the vessel unless it’s on fire or it’s sinking.’”

What had happened to Lana and Chuck?  The Coast Guard launched a massive search and rescue effort that spanned some 1600 square miles, but 26 hours later, they called off the search: there was no sign of the missing couple anywhere.

Lana’s cousin Tammy got the call from another cousin.

Tammy Swanson, Lana’s cousin: She didn’t even say hello. She just said “Lana’s missing.”

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: Lana’s missing?

Swanson:  Right. I said, “I just left her a message. What do you mean ‘she’s missing’?”

Stunned, Lana’s large, close-knit family jumped into action. Within hours they had converged from all over the state  ... plastering the area with these flyers and combing the lake in rented airplanes, helicopters, even jet skis.

Hansen: At first did you hold out hope that maybe Lana and Chuck would be found alive?

Chris Crowley, Lana’s cousin: Oh that’s all we were thinking about. We were completely thinking search and rescue.

Hansen: You figured they were clinging onto some life jacket, life ring…

Crowley:  Absolutely.

Swanson: We figured, ‘They had to be out there somewhere. They’ve gotta be on an island somewhere.’

Detective Sergeant Robin Sexton of the Michigan State Police had a missing persons case on his hands  and after inspecting Lana’s boat with three other troopers, there were very few clues about why the young couple had seemingly vanished.

Hansen: Was there anything on board the boat that indicated foul play?

Detective Sergeant Robin Sexton, Michigan State Police: Nothing. It appeared that somebody just walked off the boat. There was nothing untoward or unusual about the boat condition at all

Hansen: Any signs of a struggle?

Det. Sexton: Nothing.

Hansen: Obvious signs of blood?

Det. Sexton: Nothing. No damage to the boat, things that may have been considered of value were still there. Money was in the wallet. Clothes were laying on the deck.  [There was] nothing unusual. The natural assumption is they drowned.

Could the couple simply have gone for a swim and somehow drifted dangerously far from the boat? 

The mere suggestion makes Tom Stempien bristle.

Tom Stempien: There is no way that she just jumped off that boat. I know that for a fact. Lana knew, the first thing you do is throw the anchor out, then you jump in the water. But you don’t jump in the water and then swim after the boat.

Whatever went wrong, Lana’s family was convinced it didn’t start with a casual dip in the lake.

The day before “Sea’s Life” was discovered, the water in Lake Huron had only been about 65 degrees. Another boater remembers the couple was bundled up in sweatshirts when they pulled out of the marina that morning. And, when Lana called her aunt a few hours later, she hardly sounded like she was ready to dive in for a swim.

Pat Koczara, Lana’s aunt: She said ‘We were hoping to get an early start, we wanted to avoid the rough water.’ She says ‘but it didn’t work out that way.’ So I got the impression that the water was very rough.

What’s more, when “Sea’s Life” was found, the swim ladder was still up—not down as you’d expect it to be if someone had gone for a swim.

But if the couple had somehow ended up in the water, Lana’s family held onto the hope that their strong swimming skills would keep them alive.

Koczara: Both her and Chuck were excellent swimmers. At the wedding in Bermuda, we watched them tread water for maybe 20 minutes to 30 minutes and I had that in my mind.

By August 16^th, that hope began to fade.  It was Tuesday, the day Lana had promised her dad she’d be home, the day she planned to be by his side as he underwent heart surgery.

Swanson: She wouldn’t have missed it. If she was somewhere, she would’ve made that phone call saying “I’m okay.”  She didn’t call.

Then, on August 24^th, exactly two weeks after Lana and Chuck set out on their trip, Beverly Wheaton spotted a strange shape on this rocky shoal.

Beverly Wheaton: I was sitting at the picnic table and looking out and saw something—an object that seemed out of place.

It was Lana. 

Tom Stempien: That was… that was a shocker.

Crowley: We were crushed. We were convinced that we’d find her and we were gonna find her alive.

Swanson: Nobody could stop crying. There was a sense of “She’s home.” We could have a funeral for her. We could try and grieve for her. We could put her to rest.

Hansen: But it must have been just profoundly sad to have this reality hit home.

Swanson: She’s really gone. She’s really not coming home.

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