Published in the Janesville Gazette - June 26, 2005

By Sid Schwartz
Gazette Staff

SUMNER TOWNSHIP-Two days after apparently drowning in Lake Koshkonong , Jefferson County sheriff's deputies pulled Edgerton resident Roger Brainard's body from the water Saturday morning not far from where he was last seen swimming.

Brainard's wife, Brinda, said Roger was swimming near a boat Thursday afternoon when he disappeared beneath the green water.

"He was just swimming, and then he went under," Brinda said.

"No one knows for sure what caused him to go under. He just did," Brinda said. "He was an excellent swimmer."

Matthew Miller, a sergeant with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, said the water is only about 3½ feet deep in the area near the Kuehn Road boat launch where Brainard was last seen. But Miller noted that the lake bottom is soft mud and that Brainard was only 5 feet 3 inches tall.

Divers who searched the area Thursday and again until 5 p.m. Friday weren't able to find Brainard in the water that is thick with algae.

"You can't see," Miller said. "There's almost no visibility beneath the water."

A sheriff's department boat patrol found Brainard's body floating in the same area at 8:39 Saturday morning. An autopsy was scheduled for today, Miller said.

"It's still under investigation as to what kind of injuries, if any, he has," Miller said.

Brinda said Roger was healthy.

"He was only 38. He was fine. He was stronger than anyone I ever saw. He could do more pushups than anyone. For his size, he did well. He never considered himself short."

She said that everybody who knew Roger liked him.

"He was easy going. He was easy to get along with. He knew how to make people laugh," Brinda said.

Roger excelled at cooking ribs and chicken on the grill.

"He would do all the cooking, and sometimes he wouldn't get to eat because it would be all gone," she said.

Roger had three children of his own-Neil, 19; Nick, 18, and CJ, 14-and Brinda brought four more children to their marriage when they wed five years ago.

Roger ran his own construction business, Sunset Building Contractors, and was preparing to start construction on a new house the day he died.

"They were just getting organized for the next job," Brinda said. "It was just a hot day, and they decided to go for a swim."

Roger's 18-year-old son, Nick; Roger's business partner, Tim Owens, and Owens' dog, Angel, already were out of the water and in the boat when Roger went under. Nick and Tim searched but couldn't find him.

"You know they were just frantic," Brinda said.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department was notified at 1:32 p.m. Thursday.

Brinda said everybody who knew Roger will miss him.

"I have six brothers, and they all love him," she said. "I didn't meet anybody who didn't like him. My cousin Scott is kind of a hardheaded man, and he fell for him, too.

"Not that anybody didn't get mad at him, but you couldn't stay mad. He had a way of getting you out of it."