Man dies in Wis. after truck breaks through ice

TOWN OF CRYSTAL, WI (AP) — An Illinois man is believed to have died of exposure after crawling out of a truck that broke through an icy lake in northwestern Wisconsin.

The Washburn County Sheriff’s Office identifies the man as 30-year-old Edward Steinhardt of Naperville, Ill. The Duluth News-Tribune reports that deputies had been searching for him since Dec. 23, when a business owner in St. Louis, Mo., reported a missing employee in a vehicle with a last GPS location in Washburn County.

On Friday, deputies searched the Dilly Lake area in the Town of Crystal. They found the truck partially submerged at the south end of the lake, and Steinhardt’s body about a half-mile south along a creek.

Authorities believe Steinhardt likely escaped from his vehicle but then succumbed to the cold.