UPDATE 5:30 PM:
A search for evidence in the Portage Lakes has ended with no results..
The Summit County Sheriff's Department had received a tip that one or more bodies could be found in the lake, along with a couple of safes and other stolen items, but a day long search by divers from the Green, Coventry, new Franklin and Akron Fire departments turned up only the bones of an animal and some common debris.
Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland says the investigation will continue, because the tip came from a credible source, but no further searches of the Portage Lakes are planned for now.
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Earlier coverage:
So far nothing but animal bones in the search for bodies in the Portage Lakes.
Dive teams continue to search the water and shoreline of the North Lakes section off of Dollar Drive. Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland says the bones discovered on a small island in the lake were determined non-human animal bones by the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office. "We're going to continue our search with the sonar in the lake and to see if we can located any stolen property or bodies," Holland said.
Holland says the search will continue as a part of the investigation.
The Akron-Canton search team was out on the lake Thursday night with sonar machines.The South-Summit dive team is conducting rounds of searches today. Holland said if the information from the ongoing investigation wasn't credible at all, they "wouldn't be out there."
Weather conditions were difficult for the teams Thursday night, but Holland said Friday's weather proved to be an opportunity authorities needed to take advantage of. "There a lot of muck on the bottom of this lake," he said. "Last night there were overcast skies, so it made some things difficult."
Holland says the team will continue its search "until the job is done."
Update from 12:38 p.m.:
Divers and observers in boats were off the shoreline of the North Lakes section off Dollar Drive. Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland says searchers did find what appear to be bones on a small island, as well as other items that could have been dumped in the water. The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office has determined the bones were not human and came from an animal, according to a report from NewsChannel 5.
The other items included what appeared to be a safe and perhaps firearms, Holland said earlier, but the Cleveland TV station says the items found were simply underwater debris.
AkronNewsNow's Lindsay McCoy reports teams in two boats are now concentrating their efforts on one particular spot, using special underwater cameras to see the lake bottom. One homeowner is providing access to a fire pit in their lakeside back yard as a relief station for the search teams.
