Body in Milwaukee River disrupts construction work (UPDATE)

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By Beth Kevit

A man’s body was found in the Milwaukee River near a Tri-North Builders Inc. construction site Thursday morning.

The site is on the east side of the Milwaukee River just north of East Wisconsin Avenue. Fitchburg-based Tri-North is upgrading the Milwaukee Riverwalk, and had a barge in the river Thursday morning.

Todd Showers, Tri-North’s site manager, said Thursday afternoon that he did not notice the body, which had floated near his site, until firefighters arrived. He said he shut down the site so the body could be retrieved.

“It’s something you don’t see every day,” he said. “Definitely weird.”

Milwaukee Police Department Sgt. Mark Stanmeyer said police received a call shortly before 9 a.m. about a body in the water near North Water Street and East Wisconsin Avenue.

“We’re working with the medical examiner’s office to identify cause of death,” he said Thursday afternoon.

Stanmeyer said the department is not releasing the man’s race, but he appeared to be about 50 years old.

Milwaukee Fire Department Deputy Chief Terry Lintonen said his department put divers into the water to retrieve the body, which was turned over to the medical examiner’s office by 9:30 a.m.

“They determined he had been in the water for some time,” Lintonen said.

The body was removed from the scene around 11:15 a.m. Showers’ crew was working again Thursday afternoon.

“We all stayed,” he said.