Weekend Mississippi River Drowning Victim Identified

Authorities have released the name of a man who drowned in the Mississippi River, near Dubuque County.

On Saturday afternoon (May 22), the Grant County Wisconsin Sheriff's Office received a 911 call regarding a possible drowning. The location was a mile north of the Potosi Point, across from Sherill, Iowa.

Numerous agencies responded to help search for the victim.

Authorities identified the subject as 63 year old Mitchell Hochhausen of rural Potosi. Mitchell, along with his wife and two of their grandchildren, had been swimming at a sand beach island.

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At one point, Mitchell swam out into the river to retrieve an item that had floated away. He then turned around to swim back, but was not able to reach shallower water, and went under. The depth of the Mississippi River at that point is about 6 feet.

Rescue personnel used sonar to locate Mitchell's body, and recovered it about 4 hours after the incident began.
A coroner pronounced Mitchell dead at the boat landing.

Emergency response teams from the Iowa DNR and Wisconsin DNR, Dubuque County Sheriff, fire departments from Cassville and Sherill, and Potosi Fire and EMS assisted in the search and recovery.