JOHNSON COUNTY Ind. -- Friends and neighbors are mounring a man who drowned in an icy pond in Johnson County Tuesday night.
The sheriff's office says Brian Persinger, 43, fell into a pond while trying to save his dogs that had just fallen into the pond.
Persinger's wife called police Tuesday evening, saying she hadn't been able to contact him. He had been working at a house under construction.
"Great businessman," friend David Andrzejewski said. "He was my best friend."
Andrzejewski says he helped Persinger with building projects, one of which was the home on County Road 350 North in Franklin. That's where investigators believe Persinger's two dogs got loose and fell through the ice, where he tried to rescue them.
"I could see him doing (that) for sure. He loved those dogs," Andrzejewski said.
The SCUBA team of the sheriff's office and the Indiana DNR recovered his body from the water Tuesday after his wife called authorities to report him missing.
His friends say their lives will never be the same.
"He was my friend. I'm going to miss the hell out of him," Andrzejewski said.
The dogs have not been found, as Sheriff Doug Cox says it was too cold for rescue crews to dive deeper to search for them. Cox says he hopes to find the dogs on a warmer day to confirm their theory of what happened.
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