HANCOCK — The Hancock Police Department responded on Monday to a report of a dead body in Portage Lake. The body was located on the shoreline of the 1400 block of Jasberg Street.

Lt. David Outinen of the Police Dept. said that the body was that of Benjamin Julik, age 40, of Sauk Center, Minnesota. Positive identification, he said could not immediately be established, as the Julik was likely in the water for longer than a week.

Very little else is known at this time, said Outinen.

“The last we know of him, on July 26th, he was dropped off at the bus station at the Shottle Bop (on Quincy Street),” he said. “That was in the early afternoon hours; the bus doesn’t leave until 11 p.m.”

The body was located on Monday, Aug. 9, and between July and Aug. 9 and the day he was found, the police have no other details.

“In checking things out, he never did buy a buy a bus ticket,” said the lieutenant, “and he didn’t check with the Salvation Army about getting a bus ticket, if he needed their assistance, or anything like that.”

Outinen said that on Monday, he received two separate phone calls from two different friends, both female, asking about the Hancock bus stop, and how Julik was scheduled to be back in Minnesota and he is not there.

“That was the first knowledge we even had of somebody missing,” Outinen said.

According to the Houghton County Medical Examiner’s Office, the cause of death is likely drowning, but they are still waiting for lab and toxicology results. No trauma or injury was apparent, and there is no evidence of foul play at this time.