The Cass County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the apparent drowning of a South Bend man Monday afternoon in Kirk Lake in Penn Township, northeast of Vandalia.
Eugene Carpenter, 69, of South Bend, died at approximately 2:03 p.m.
Cass County dispatchers received a call from a subject regarding a boat that appeared to be unattended near the public access site on Kirk Lake.
Police said the victim apparently drowned while swimming to catch a boat that had drifted away from the launch site.
An autopsy was planned to determine the exact cause of death. Carpenter was not wearing any flotation devices.
South Bend Memorial Med Flight Helicopter assisted the Cass County Sheriff’s Department in finding the victim.
Carpenter was a professor of Old Testament and a scholar-in-residence at Mishawaka’s Bethel College, where he taught for 26 years.
The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Everest/Rohrer Auditorium at Bethel.