LAPORTE, Ind. (AP) — Conservation officers say an 80-year-old Gary man drowned in a northern Indiana lake while trying to retrieve a fishing boat that drifted away as he and friend were launching it.

Williams Holmes drowned Friday in Stone Lake after he entered the lake and began swimming toward the boat.

Conservation officers say Holmes slipped beneath the surface of the lake that’s located in LaPorte.

City police and fire crews later recovered Holmes’ body about 20 feet from the lake’s shoreline.

The LaPorte County coroner determined that Holmes died from drowning.