Details from The Detroit Free Press:
The body of the Rev. Stephen Rooney, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Trenton, was found Thursday morning in Lake Erie.
Rooney’s body was discovered about 8:55 a.m. near the Stony Point Peninsula in Frenchtown Township, just south of the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.
An Irish immigrant who served several parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit for three decades, Rooney had been missing since Sunday night, when the boat he was riding in capsized in the Detroit River just off the eastern shore of Grosse Ile near Stoney Island.
Since then, divers from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Marine Unit, the Downriver Dive Team and the Grosse Ile Police Marine Unit searched the water, and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters flew overhead, looking for any signs of Rooney.
But it was a fishing charter that discovered the body about 14 miles south of the scene of the accident, said Grosse Ile Police Lt. Ken Pelland.
The body of Robert Chiles, 52, of Grosse Ile, the driver of the 39-foot Nor-Tech Center Console, was recovered Tuesday evening by a tow boat operator not far from the scene of the wreck.
“Keep the family of Mr. Chiles and the community that Father Rooney served in your prayers,” Pelland said. “It’s a tough situation all around for the entire community.”
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them …
