HOLLAND, Michigan — New information has been released in the case of a father who drove into Lake Macatawa with his two children in the backseat in January.
A toxicology report shows 52-year-old Jon Paul Dowler was positive for alcohol, with a blood-alcohol level of .18, for THC Delta 9 and for Methamphetamine.
His cause of death is determined to be drowning.
His two children, ages 8 and 10, were in the car at the time of crash, but were able to escape through the emergency exit in the trunk.
A police report says Dowler and his children were at a friend's house watching a football game the night before the crash happened. His wife, Jennifer Dowler, reported them missing when they did not return the next day.
The last ping of Dowler's phone was near the Saugatuck Dunes around 1:30 a.m. on January 22.
After leaving their friend's house, police say the kids were both buckled, but their father was not. The kids told police they knew this because the seat belt alarm was going off and he "kept yelling at it to shut up and swore at it."
They also described their father swerving and hitting an animal while driving.
Both the kids said they saw their father "drink a lot of beers" that night, the report said.
Police say surveillance video at a nearby marina then shows the car entering the water at a boat ramp on Scotch Street at 1:43 a.m. at a high rate of speed with little to no braking.
One of the kids told police their sibling tried to smash the window open with an object in the car. Eventually, they got out through the trunk. They grabbed a life jacket that was in the car from a beach trip the summer before.
The kids swam to the shore and huddled on someone's porch overnight. Only one of the kids was wearing a coat, so they wrapped the soaking coat around both of them.
The temperature was between 31 and 33 degrees on Jan. 22. The water temperature was 38 degrees.
As many of the homes in the area are summer homes, the kids couldn't find a person to help them, so they fell asleep. Once morning came, they saw a house with a car in the driveway and went to their door for help. That person called police.
Both the kids were treated for cold exposure, but neither suffered serious injuries.
The car was found in park, about 150 feet into the lake, completely submerged under 8 to 10 feet of water.
Dowler allegedly worked at Perrigo in Otsego before his death. His wife told police he has a history of drinking and driving.
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