Body Found in Straits Identified as Missing Pilot Karen Dodds

A body found in the Straits of Mackinac has been identified by forensic pathologists as that of pilot Karen Dodds, 52, of Washington, D.C.

The body was recovered by the United States Coast Guard St. Ignace Station Monday, October 8, and identified through dental records Monday, October 15, at the Forensic Pathology Department at Spectrum Health- Blodgett Campus in Grand Rapids.

Ms. Dodds and her companion, Henry Brooks Stauffer, 56, also of Washington, D.C., departed Mackinac Island August 24 in a private plane headed for Bad Axe. The plane never reached its destination.

Neither the plane nor the body of Mr. Stauffer has been found, following an extensive search of the area.

According to earlier reports, debris suspected to be from the missing plane was found washed ashore east of Cheboygan August 27.

Civil Air Patrol members, Michigan State Police Posts in St. Ignace and Cheboygan, sheriff's departments in Mackinac and Cheboygan counties, and the United States Coast Guard were involved in the search on land and in the water. The water search included an area called known locally as the "south channel," between Bois Blanc Island and Cheboygan, where investigators presume the plane may have crashed.

No additional searching is planned.