Searchers have located a small aircraft that crashed into Lake Huron in Michigan 17 years ago, along with the remains of a missing passenger, according to state police. The passenger was identified as H. Brooke Stauffer Jr., aged 56, who resided in Washington, D.C. Stauffer was a passenger on a flight from Mackinac Island to a small town in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula in August 2007.

Stauffer and the pilot, his fiancée Karen Dodds, were aboard a Socata TB-20 Trinidad when the plane vanished. While Dodds’ remains were found two months post the crash, east of the Mackinac Bridge, no traces of the plane or Stauffer were initially discovered.

State police mentioned that in October 2023, Great Lakes Search & Recovery, a private company, resumed search operations upon the request of the family. In August 2024, the search team located the wreckage of the plane near Bois Blanc Island. Following this discovery, state police divers found skeletal remains, and Stauffer’s identity was confirmed with the aid of dental records by the Center for Forensic Anthropology at Northern Michigan University.

Stauffer served as the director of standards and safety for the National Electrical Contractors Association. Described as a prolific writer, Stauffer authored numerous technical books, magazine articles, a children’s novel, and a guidebook for Washington, D.C. Karen Dodds, aged 52, operated her own business called Dodds Design, specializing in graphic design and marketing based in Washington.