Plane debris floats ashore at Milwaukee

DETROIT (AP)-The Coast Guard located debris in Lake Michigan today from an airplane missing since Saturday when it departed Manitowoc. Searchers were trying to find any sign of survivors from the four reported on board.

Planes from the Chicago air station located the cabin door and a suitcase from the plane which carried Paul (sic) Greer of Indianapolis and his three step daughters, near Mequon, officials at the Milwaukee Coast Guard station said by telephone.

Police in Mequon on Monday found a two-tone seat cushion from the plane washed up on the shore of Virmond Park Beach, north of Milwaukee. Civil Air Patrol planes from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana were joined Monday by Coast Guard Planes in the search for Greer, reported missing Sunday when he and his stepdaughters failed to arrive at home. Greer, who apparently had taken the three step daughters on a business trip to Crivitz in Marinette County, was piloting the plane, a Piper Commanche. Both the Civil Air Patrol working out of Timmerman Field in Milwaukee, and the U.S. Coast Guard are involved in the search.

Herald Times Reporter, June 14, 1977 P. 1

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Ex-Two Rivers girls aboard missing plan. The private plane that has been the subject of an intensive search since taking off from Manitowoc County Airport, Saturday afternoon, contained three young girls who formerly resided at Two Rivers, it was learned Wednesday.

The youngsters are Kristie, 10, and sisters, Amy, 12, and Kay, 16, all daughters of Vernon Kumbalek of Rt. 1, Coleman, and Mrs. Paul Greer, the former Marilyn VanLaarhoven Kumbalek, of Plainfield, Ind. Vernon Kumbalek and Mrs. Greer are both natives of Two Rivers and the family resided on Jackson Street in that city until about six years ago.

The three girls were driven to Two Rivers earlier Saturday where they had lunch at the Cory Kumbalek residence at Two Rivers.

Then they boarded the private plane piloted by their step-father, Paul Greer, of Plainfield, Ind., and the aircraft took off from the Manitowoc County Airport about 2 p.m., for Indianapolis.

The search for the aircraft was suspended Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Coast Guard. Debris from the airplane was found Monday along the Lake Michigan Shore in Southern Ozaukee County. "At this point, persons aboard are considered lost," a Coast Guard spokesman said, Wednesday.

Herald Times Reporter, June 15, 1977 P. P. 1

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Name of plane pilot corrected Taul (sic) Greer, not Paul Greer, was the pilot of a private plane lost since Saturday in Lake Michigan. He and three girl passengers died in the crash, according to a report Wednesday by the U.S. Coast Guard. Taul Greer was inadvertently identified as Paul Greer in a news story that appeared Wednesday in The Herald Times-Reporter.

Herald Times Reporter, June 16, 1977