Additional searching for Heckert pending

SANDPOINT - Adverse conditions on Lake Pend Oreille and a drowning on Lake Coeur d'Alene are slowing efforts to find a Bonner County man who may have drowned near Hope earlier this month.

The search for Jeremy Robert Heckert resumed on Tuesday, but was cut short due to wind-whipped waves on the lake, said Bonner County Sheriff's Det. Phil Stella. The search, which was to be aided by a sheriff's sonar and remotely-operated vehicle from Kootenai County, was slated to resume but those resources had to be diverted due to the presumed drowning of a teen on Lake Coeur d'Alene on the same day.

Heckert, 38, was last seen on Lake Pend Oreille on July 10 northwest of Hope. He reportedly went into the water without a life jacket and was described by family as not an especially strong swimmer.

Cadaver-detecting dogs searched the rocky shoreline and another dog was placed aboard a sheriff's johnboat on Sunday. The dogs detected the scent of a cadaver in the water and on land, according to Sheriff Daryl Wheeler.