Th search for a missing doctor in Michigan concluded on Tuesday after investigators discovered a body under the ice of a frozen pond.
Dr. Bolek Payan, a psychiatrist at Henry Ford Health, was reported missing last week after he failed to pick up his dogs from a friend’s home on Thursday.
The body was found in a pond near Payan’s home, after investigators drilled holes in the ice to look underneath it. The Blackman-Leoni Township Department of Public Safety (BLDPS) said investigators searched the grounds near Payan’s home after security footage showed the doctor leaving his house on foot Thursday afternoon.
Police dogs, drones, and officers searched the woods and acres around the medical professional’s home before checking in the pond.
"After not locating anything on land, holes were cut in the ice of a pond on the property yesterday and divers located Dr. Payan's body under the ice today," the BLDPS said in a statement on Tuesday.
A family friend of Payan, Nicole Keiser, told WILX-TV that she saw him Thursday morning when he dropped off his dogs at her house around 8 a.m.
Before his body was found, Keiser told the station that it was “out of character” for him to go home without picking up his dogs.
According to Henry Ford Health, Payan graduated from Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in Illinois in 2017. As stated in the hospital’s directory, the psychiatrist worked out of Jackson, Michigan, at Henry Ford Jackson Outpatient Behavioral Health.
WLNS 6 News reported that detectives have said that due to weather conditions, they believe the doctor was dead before he was reported missing.
In an update about the investigation, the BLDPS stated that the “Jackson County Medical Examiner's Office will be conducting an autopsy and toxicology testing, which will aid in further investigating this incident.”
The statement from the BLDPS concluded, "We would like to thank the Jackson County Dive Team, Michigan Search and Rescue, J-DART, the neighbors, and the public for their assistance during this incident. Our thoughts are with Dr. Payan's family and friends."
The tragedy occurred amid severe weather conditions affecting the Midwest and East Coast in the US. The historic storm has covered western New York in snow and killed at least 50 individuals, per People.
