Missing woman’s body recovered from Aberdeen lake

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Aberdeen police believe they’ve recovered the body of a missing woman.

Saturday, police say someone reported a suspicious object near the west bridge area of Richmond Lake.

The Brown County dive team was called to the lake and confirmed a car was in the water. The car was confirmed as one in a missing person’s case involving Nancee Bitz.

The car was removed from the water and police recovered a body inside.

Police believe the body recovered is Bitz.

Nancee Bitz, 72, was reported missing by her family in April.

“You see these things on television, and it seems almost surreal that it’s happening in your very own family in little Aberdeen, South Dakota,” Bitz’s brother Bill Edwards told Dakota News Now in May.

Bitz had been living with her mother before leaving suddenly on Easter Sunday evening.

An autopsy was conducted Sunday at UND Forensic Pathology Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Police say the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bitz’s disappearance is ongoing.