Jon Paul Dowler, 52, a father of two young girls, accidentally drove his SUV into Lake Macatawa in Michigan on a cold night on a dark road on January 22. He managed to save his children in the sinking car by opening the car trunk. The girls were miraculously able to swim to safety in the freezing cold. Dowler didn’t make it.
The SUV plunged into the lake at Jenison Avenue, a quiet suburban street whose dead end leads right into the lake.
Police speculate that Dowler saved the lives of his eight-year-old and ten-year-old daughters by opening the SUV’s back hatch using the trunk switch on the driver’s seat.
The girls were able to swim to shore at around 2 am and spent the freezing cold night huddled together in their wet clothes on a porch on a property near the lake, until the homeowner discovered them.
The girls saw lights on a Christmas tree at the house and hunkered there until morning. The homeowner, Kevin MacLeod, found them in their wet clothes with no shoes.
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Eric Westveer said that Dowler tried to get out of the car by breaking the windows, but was unsuccessful.
The girls told an officer they huddled together throughout the night to keep warm because they saw the survival technique on TV.
