8/29/2024

ST. IGNACE, Mich - The Michigan State Police announced Wednesday a Plane wreckage and human remains from a crash 17 years ago off Mackinac Island were discovered this month.  In August 2007, the airplane crashed into Lake Huron while en route to Bad Axe from Mackinac Island. The plane was flown by Karen Dodds, a 52-year-old woman from Washington D.C. with one passenger, H. Brooke Stauffer Jr., a 56-year-old man from Washington, D.C. A large-scale search for the plane wreckage or survivors was conducted, but the plane was never found. On October 8, 2007, human remains were found in the Straits of Mackinac, east of the Mackinac Bridge. Those remains were recovered and later identified as Dodds, the missing pilot. The search for Stauffer, the passenger, and the plane wreckage continued. The search was eventually called off without finding the wreckage. In October 2023, Great Lakes Search & Recovery, a private company, resumed the search efforts at the request of family members. This month, members of the search team discovered plane wreckage near Bois Blanc Island.  A set of skeletal remains was found at the crash site.  Dental records positively identified that the remains were of Stauffer.