Body of missing swimmer found in Detroit River

The body of a woman who disappeared while swimming near Lake St. Clair has been pulled from the Detroit River.

Police confirmed the body is that of the 20-year-old Windsor woman who vanished beneath the surface early Friday after going into the water at a beach in the city's east end.

Ontario Provincial Police dive teams and Windsor police had searched the waters all day Friday and Saturday before calling off the effort Sunday morning.

The body was found by a boater that afternoon not far from Sandpoint Beach.

That's where the woman, who has not been identified at the request of the family, went around 4 a.m. with three male friends. All attended the University of Windsor.

Drowning death toll rises

Police said the group had consumed alcohol, but would not say definitively if it was a factor in the drowning.

The woman and two of the men went into the water, but the woman went out past the safety barriers where she was caught in the strong currents.

Police said she could not swim, and the men were either non-swimmers or very weak swimmers.

One of them nearly drowned trying to pull the woman back to safety after she began to struggle.

The witnesses told police the woman slipped under the surface and was not seen again.

On Friday evening, a two-year-old boy in nearby Amherstburg, Ont., also drowned in a backyard pool, raising the number of drowning deaths in Ontario since May 1 to 56.