The body of a diver missing for more than a decade has finally been found in the icy waters of Lake Michigan.

Two divers in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin found the mummified remains of 52-year-old Dirk Kann of Guttenberg, Iowa 225 feet below the surface Saturday still in his wet suit, WLUK-TV reported.

Kann disappeared in September 1999 after attempting to explore the shipwreck of the legendary 2,425-ton iron steamer Lakeland; a popular and extremely dangerous dive located 225 feet below the surface.

Last weekend two experienced divers had found Kann's body on Saturday while also exploring the Lakeland shipwreck. The Door County sheriff's department confirmed that the body is that of Kann who had been missing for more than a decade.

"He still had his diving gear on, in fact," explained Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel during a news conference Sunday night.

Scuba-diving expert Alan Pahnke told WLUK-TV that the 36-degree temperatures that deep in the water would preserve a body for years.

"Because of the pressure and the depth it's at, there's not a lot of oxygen down there," Pahnke said. "Plus the cold, it's like a refrigerator, it'll keep for quite a while."

However, authorities did not release the exact condition of the body and said that results from the autopsy helped confirm the identity.

Kann was reportedly an experienced diver, according to the Door County Advocate, he had went on a dive to the Lakeland shipwreck with a friend, a 49-year-old man from nearby Appleto, on Sept. 4, 1999, and as they were surfacing both men experienced trouble.

The Advocate reported that Kann had decided to hang on the line 80 feet below the surface to decompress from the 175-foot dive, as his partner continued up.

Divers must decompress to prevent the buildup of nitrogen bubble in the blood after deep dives.

However, when Kann's partner reached the surface, there was no sign of Kann.

While dangerous, divers flock to the Lakeland site because the steamship that sank in 1924 carried a collection of what are now nearly 90-year-old cars.

Pahnke said to the New York Daily News that no matter how popular the Lakeland is still considered a "technical dive" because the wreck is so deep.

"You need much more training to go down there than a normal sport diver would," he said to the New York Daily News.

Vogel said that over the years there have been many attempts to try to recover Kann's body, but none were successful until Saturday.

"We made numerous attempts through the years to try to recover him with technological advancements. We used some of that to go down there, but his remains weren't found until Saturday," Vogel said.

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