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	The Ile Camera A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

Man's body is found after disappearance in Trenton Channel

By Lena Khzouz Magyar, The Ile Camera

PUBLISHED: August 1, 2008

GROSSE ILE TWP. — The body of a former township businessman who disappeared while swimming in the Trenton Channel last week was found Friday.

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Matthew Wilkinson, 37, had been visiting Downriver from his home in Santa Barbara, Calif.

He was the former president of the now-closed Countywide Landfill in Gibraltar.

The landfill on Vreeland Road was an affiliate of Detroit Steel Co. Ltd., which purchased it as part of the old McLouth Steel property. Wilkinson also was president of Detroit Steel Co.

Wilkinson, who had been spending time with his brother and friends on the evening of July 23, swam across the Trenton Channel and back that evening.

He tried to swim across again and apparently ran into trouble. Witnesses said he then tried to hang onto a buoy not far from his parents' house near West River Road and Highland.

Seeing that he was in trouble, those he was with tried to get to him in a boat that was at the dock, but could not get to him fast enough, according to police Detective Lt. Joseph Porcarelli.

Unable to hold onto or climb onto the buoy, Wilkinson was seen going under the water.

Grosse Ile fire and police personnel, the Downriver Dive Team, the Coast Guard and the Wayne County Sheriff's Marine Division tried for hours that evening and the next day to find him, but were unsuccessful.

A boater found him at 6:30 p.m. Friday near the Harrison boat ramp in the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River.

Authorities are awaiting the results of an autopsy by the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office to determine the exact cause of death, Porcarelli said.

He said Wilkinson's friends at the scene said alcohol was not involved.