NY police ID body found in lake as snowmobiler from Vermont

PUTNAM, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities have identified a body recovered from Lake Champlain as one of two Vermont men believed to have fallen through the ice while snowmobiling.

New York State Police say Thursday that the body found Wednesday has been identified as 23-year-old Brandon Barrett, of Benson, Vermont.

Police divers found his body in about 20 feet of water in the Washington County town of Putnam, on the lake’s New York side 95 miles north of Albany.

The identity was confirmed from an autopsy conducted at an Albany hospital.

Police say Benson’s body was found near where he and 32-year-old Jonathan Ryan, of Shoreham, Vermont, are believed to have been crossing the lake to get to a restaurant in Ticonderoga, New York, on Feb. 9 when their snowmobiles apparently broke through the ice.

The search for Ryan is continuing.