Man assumed drowned, but body hasn't been found

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Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump"I come out here every day and tell him I love him," said Cathy Kelly, longtime girlfriend of Jay Farr, who disappeared last October after taking his canoe on Northport Bay. Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City
Cathy Kelly and Jay Farr.

June 23, 2012

Man assumed drowned, but body hasn't been found

BY ART BUKOWSKI abukowski@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sat Jun 23, 2012, 07:56 PM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Cathy Kelly wanders down to the edge of Northport Bay every day to deliver a message.

Jay Farr, her boyfriend of four years, disappeared in the bay in October. Authorities believe he drowned, but crews from several agencies couldn't find his body after more than a week of searches. That fact gnaws at Kelly, and she's desperate to see his remains recovered.

"I always go down there and tell him I love him and I miss him," she said. "I made a promise to him last year that I was going to do the best I could to find him, because he would do the same for me."

Farr, 58, lived in Northport and worked as a caregiver at a senior assisted living facility there. He disappeared Oct. 15 after he said he planned to retrieve a dinghy moored in Northport Bay. Nobody saw him paddle his canoe out to the dinghy, but both the canoe and dinghy later were found across Grand Traverse Bay on the shores of Antrim County.

Authorities suspect he fell in while unhooking the dinghy, but they don't know for sure. Strong winds and swirling currents mean he could have ended up nearly anywhere in the bay, which stretches about 12 miles across at Northport.

"It's like your life is stuck. The last eight months have been horrible," Kelly, 55, said. "That's what you think about all the time: he's out in that water somewhere."

Leelanau County Undersheriff Scott Wooters said finding drowning victims' bodies in the bay is about a "50-50 proposition." It's impossible to do a foot-by-foot search of a body of water that's hundreds of feet deep and miles across, and it's difficult to figure out exactly where the wind and currents could take a body, he said.

"We really don't know what happens to them after they disappear, and for that reason it's very hard to be exact in finding them," he said.

No one saw Farr go into the water, and that makes a search much more difficult.

"The biggest problem is we're making an educated guess at a starting point when we have an unwitnessed incident," Wooters said.

Farr was a Vietnam veteran who lived in Northport for about six years after living in Clare for several years, Kelly said. Neighbors and friends in Northport remembered him as friendly, extremely hard-working and dedicated to others.

"He made friends real easy because he was the type of guy that if you needed anything, he was there," said Tom Capen, a friend. "I think it was an important part of his life to do things for other people; it meant something to him."

Kelly worked at the same senior home as Farr. Now that it's boating season again, she's hopeful boaters in the bay will be on the lookout for Farr's body.

"I just want everybody to keep their eyes open so we can find him and put this to rest," she said. "It's been a very hurtful, emotional thing."

Kelly and Capen hope Farr's death serves as a reminder to be safe on and around the area's waterways.

"There's still people drowning," Capen said. "People need to be aware of the fact that Lake Michigan is not something to mess around with."