The body of a badly decomposed man found floating in Lake Michigan near Highland Park was identified Friday as Todd Larson, 28, who disappeared five months ago when his small plane vanished over the lake, authorities said.
Larson, a resident of Louisville, Ky., and an employee of the Chicago-based cargo firm Prompt Air, was identified through dental records supplied by his family, said Jim Wipper, a deputy Lake County coroner.
Larson was believed to be a passenger in the Cessna 210 being piloted by Mike Temple, 27, when it crashed Feb. 20. Temple’s body is still missing, according to authorities.
Larson’s body was discovered Thursday by a boater about 100 yards east of the Park Avenue boat launch. Highland Park police and a fire department dive rescue team recovered the body at about 2 p.m., a police spokesman said.
An autopsy conducted Thursday night determined that Larson died of multiple traumatic injuries, Wipper said.
Relatives of Larson and Temple assisted in Friday’s identification by supplying dental records, Wipper said.
Neither Larson’s parents, who reside in Minnesota, nor relatives of Temple, who reside in Louisville, could be reached for comment Friday.
Last March, the two families met in Peoria to discuss the situation and to offer a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the discovery of their sons or the plane.
Larson and Temple were making a courier run from Milwaukee to Louisville when their plane vanished from radar over Lake Michigan just north of Lake Bluff, authorities said.
Temple had been piloting the four-seat Cessna when it took off from Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee. Air traffic controllers in Elgin tracked the plane to a point a mile offshore over Lake Michigan before it began descending and vanished from radar, authorities said.
Several searches by the Coast Guard, the Illinois Civil Air Patrol, the Indiana Civil Air Patrol and area boaters failed to recover any bodies or plane wreckage until Friday, authorities said.
An investigation into the crash is continuing, said spokesman for the Highland Park Police Department.