Body Found In Indiana Lake May Be That Of Missing Michigan Doctor

[April 08, 2014]  By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) — Police have told the parents of a missing Michigan doctor a body recovered from a northwestern Indiana lake may be that of their daughter, a private investigator working the case said on Monday.

Teleka Patrick went missing on December 5 after attempting to check into a hotel in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she lived, according to Jim Carlin, a Michigan investigator her family hired about three months ago to look for her.

"From my own investigation, I'm confident that in all probability this is Teleka," he said.

Authorities recovered a woman's body in Lake Charles in the Town of Porter on Sunday after a fisherman reported seeing it floating in the water.

The lake is near the spot where an Indiana State Police trooper found Patrick's car abandoned along Interstate 94 on December 5.

An autopsy will be performed on the body this week, state police said in a statement.

Patrick, who was 30 when she was reported missing, was a first year psychiatry resident at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine.

It is unclear why she left Michigan and drove to Indiana and why she was attempting to rent a hotel room in the city where she lived, Carlin said.

"The whole thing has been very, very dubious," said Carlin, noting that the hotel turned her away because she did not have proper identification or enough money.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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