Man drowns in Leech Lake

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Aug. 25, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

A 48-year-old St. Paul man drown in Leech Lake Monday, according to the Cass County Sheriff's Department, making him the fifth person to drown in Cass County this year.

David J. Dickhut was swimming in Leech Lake about 5 p.m. near Sand Point, which is north of Walker, when he died.

Cass County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Thompson said the victim apparently became exhausted while attempting to swim back to shore.

The accident comes just one day short of exactly two months ago when the county's last drowning victim was found this summer.

Rex Robert Johnson of Renner, S.D., was found dead in Lake Winnibigoshish on June 24.

He had been observed fishing on the lake early that day, but later his boat was found unoccupied and afloat by another boater.

Search efforts were hampered the day of his disappearance, but his body was recovered the next day.

Prior to that, a 44-year-old Shoreview man was found dead on Leech Lake a day after a wave knocked him from a boat on Minnesota's opening day of fishing -- May 15.

Chris Berndt was sitting on an elevated seat near the front of a bass boat when he fell into the water and drowned.

Nathaniel Tiemann, 5, and Mark Hess, 30 both of Wisconsin, died when the car they were riding in sank through the ice on Lake Winnibigoshish on Feb. 27. Two other people, Tiemann's father and Hess' son, survived the incident.