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Press Releases
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Society Will Miss Fred and Barbara Leete
March 10, 2008
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Courtesy of the Cheboygan Daily Tribune
By MIKE FORNES
Tribune Staff Writer
BROWNSBURG, Ind. - A tragic accident claimed the lives of two Wawatam Beach summer residents on Feb. 28 at their Indiana home.
Acute carbon monoxide poisoning is believed to be the cause of death for Frederick D. Leete III, 80, and his wife, Barbara R. Leete, 75, both of Brownsburg, Ind.
Spokesmen for the Hendricks County (Ind.) Sheriff's Department and the Indiana State Police said they theorize that the deaths were accidental.
“Our department investigated this,” said Capt. Brett Clark, public information officer for the Hendricks County Sheriff. “They were found in the living room of their home. Their car had been left running in the garage. It looks like nothing more than a tragic accident.”
Barbara Leete died Feb. 28, the day the accident was discovered. Hendricks County Coroner Jason Matthews, verified her cause of death, but her husband's death certificate has not yet been issued by Marion County, Ind., authorities where he died at a hospital. Matthews indicated that the television was on and that “things looked very normal, like they were just at home together.”
“Fred held on for several days, and died Monday,” said Sgt. Chip Sunier, commander of the Indiana State Police Dive Team. “The doctor told me he believed that Fred had been exposed to the carbon monoxide for about 20 hours before they were found. There's no way he could survive that but he tried.”
Leete, a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, was well known for his work as a scuba-diving instructor and was certified by several agencies. He actively dove the Straits of Mackinac and was responsible for discovering several shipwrecks in the area along with a group of wreck hunters in the 1960s. In addition, he worked with police agencies in Indiana, especially the Indiana State Police divers.
“He was my mentor,” Sunier said, “a perfectionist who had high standards. He picked up our dive team by the boot straps and kept us afloat. I've told people that if I ever knew one-tenth of what Fred knew about diving I was a very smart man. He was the thread that kept the Indiana State Police Dive Team alive.”
In the late 1980s, Leete and fellow dive instructor Janet Provost of Mackinaw City learned that thieves had loosened and were ready to remove the figurehead of the brig Sandusky, an 1856 wreck lying in 90 feet of water about seven miles west of the Mackinac Bridge. The pair removed the figurehead completely and handed it over to a museum for safekeeping, then oversaw the replacement of another figurehead on the wreck that was carved to replicate the original.
Barbara Leete was a basket maker and member of the Basket Makers Guild. Her services took place on Wednesday. Services for Fred Leete III were held on March 10.
The couple is survived by nine children, including Frederick Leete IV of Cheboygan; 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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