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• Search crews find snowmobile; rider still missing

AFTON, Minn. -- The family of a man believed drowned Friday night in the St. Croix River kept vigil on the shore Saturday as searchers used an airboat and sonar equipment to try and locate him.

KSTP-TV reported Sunday that the missing man is a Lake St. Croix Beach resident. On Saturday, searchers were able to find the snow machine and family apparently verified that it was the snowmobile their loved one had been riding.

EMS and rescue personnel from two states converged over a hole in the St. Croix River early Friday evening after a homeowner off Glenmont Road in St. Croix County said he heard someone calling for help from his vantage point in the town of Troy.

River Falls ambulance and fire personnel were paged at 6:30 p.m., Friday, after the caller indicated a snowmobiler appeared to have sledded into open water in area of the St. Croix between the Troy Bourne development in Wisconsin and the Afton marina about five miles south of I-94 in Minnesota.

About 6:40 p.m., the man who was relaying information about the incident to his wife, heard the voice from the river fall silent.

A Washington County, Minn., deputy soon arrived at a landing near Afton and saw snowmobile tracks leading from the Minnesota side to open water on the river. Shortly before 7 p.m., responsibility for the incident shifted from Wisconsin to Minnesota.

Around 8 p.m., a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter pilot reported he could see a clear set of tracks where he went in at a "pretty high pace. He probably skipped on the water a little bit."

Rescuers found a helmet and another item floating near the edge of the open water but no signs of life.