With news spreading of a drowning on a Kenora-area lake, Greg Mainville started to get a terrible feeling about his brother Chris upon hearing that a couple of his brother’s friends were also missing.

After hearing about the discovery of a body, Greg Mainville went to check on his brother Friday morning at his home in Kenora and made a startling find.

"Everybody was trying to get a hold of (them)... nobody would answer, the doors were locked," said Greg Mainville.

His brother’s fishing gear — things like ice-fishing rods, coveralls and boots normally stored on the stairs leading up to his room — was gone.

"I didn’t want to think the worst, but they were gone, so I just assumed that he was out there, too," he said.

The Ontario Provincial Police in Kenora confirmed Monday that the bodies of three other individuals believed missing on a lake north of the resort community were found on the weekend.

According to OPP spokeswoman Const. Ronni Grosenick, the bodies of Diane Otto, 43, and Chris Mainville, 42, were found Saturday afternoon in Selkirk Lake, and the body of Edward Everson, 53, was found late Sunday morning.

The bodies of the three friends were found in the water, close to the spot where Robert Kantimere was found Thursday afternoon by a trapper.

"It’s certainly a tragedy that will be felt throughout the community," Grosenick said.

Grosenick said the four individuals were found about 100 metres from shore. She said police do not believe they had been fishing, adding there was no fishing equipment on shore or on the ice near where they were found.

"It’s not a fishing lake," Grosenick said. "We’re not exactly sure what the circumstances were that they were doing out there."

However, friend and local fishing guide Paul Batiuk said Otto frequently went to Selkirk Lake to fish, adding it isn’t considered a fishing location but that Otto and some of her friends went there often.

Otto was in a relationship with Kantimere, said Kantimere’s brother Ken.

Ken Kantimere said the OPP told the family that they believed that Robert Kantimere was attempting to save his friends’ lives.

"The OPP said they found his boots and jacket on the shore," Ken Kantimere said. "The engine of his truck was still running when they found him. It wasn’t a fishing accident. (Robert) was trying to save them."

Kantimere comes from a large family, many of whom live in Winnipeg. His father lives in Emerson.

The Mainville family lives north of Kenora, on the Dalles First Nation.

Grosenick said an autopsy will be performed on the four bodies.

Kantimere’s body was found Thursday afternoon by a trapper, who spotted a vehicle on shore and then saw the body lying on the ice.

Grosenick said that because of the unusually mild weather, the trapper stayed on shore and called out to the body on the ice but he received no reply. The trapper called the OPP, who went to the scene with members of the Lake Of The Woods Search And Rescue Unit.

The SAR members walked and swam out 100 metres to where Kantimere’s body was lying face down on the ice. They floated him back to shore.

Grosenick said investigators found property on shore that led them to believe there had been others with Kantimere, and they issued a public alert for assistance in determining who had been with him.

The three bodies were discovered by the OPP underwater search and recovery unit.

Greg Mainville, who was used to looking after his brother Chris Mainville, had a terrible feeling when he heard the couple who were friends with his brother were missing.

Otto and Kantimere hung out regularly with Chris Mainville, as well as his friend Edward Everson.

Mainville boarded at Everson’s home, said family, and the two were long-time friends.

The group would go fishing together at local lakes in the winter, taking Kantimere’s Cherokee jeep.