Four days of searching ended on 12 August at 13:15, near the tourist settlement of Pretor. A specialised diving team from the Tiger special unit recovered the body of 71-year-old M. M. from Skopje out of the waters of Lake Prespa.

The report came in on 8 August at around 12:20 to the Bitola police. According to it, the man jumped from a boat into the lake near the Resen village of Slivnica - after the oars fell into the water. That is the entire initial account, and in its simplicity the whole event is contained.

The scene was examined by a team from the Bitola police and the Resen department, and on the order of a public prosecutor the body was transferred to the clinical hospital in Bitola for an autopsy.

Four days between Slivnica and Pretor

Almost half a week stood between the place where the man disappeared and the place where he was found. That is the reality of searching Lake Prespa - deep water, wind, and a surface that cannot be covered in a day. The Tiger unit's diving teams are effectively the only resource in the country for this kind of intervention, and they cover three large lakes and every major reservoir.

Every summer the same scene repeats in a different variation: a boat, an oar, a jump into the water, and then days of searching. Vessels on our lakes most often lack the prescribed equipment, and the rescue services arrive when it is already late - through no fault of their own, but because prevention is not within their remit.

The autopsy will establish the exact sequence of events. It will not change what is already known - a family in Skopje waited four days for news from Pretor.