A woman was placed in mental health protective custody by police after she was found screaming for help in Lake Coeur d’Alene about 2:30 this morning.

Officers used a boat to rescue the woman, who was about 700 feet from shore at Coeur d’Alene City Beach. The woman’s clothes were at the shore, and she refused to commands to swim to safety, according to a news release.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Higgins and police Officer Justin Bangs used a patrol boat from Blackwell Island Marina to reach the woman, then pulled her to safety.

The woman, who is in her 20s, had been contacted by police that night for a report of a battery and trespassing in the 800 block of N. 7th Street, but the victim declined to pursue charges.

Police don’t know if the woman was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to a news release.

An elderly man found dead in Lake Coeur d’Alene this morning led police on a wild chase in 2008 that was featured on the cable television show “Most Daring: Senior Smackdown.”

A couple walking their dog spotted the body of Ira L. Loudenback about 8:15 a.m. a short distance from the shore of Sanders Beach.

Loudenback was 75 when he was involved in a chase with three police cars in Coeur d’Alene. Police say he rammed several cars during the July 2008 pursuit before finally being pinned by squad cars. At the time, police said Loudenback was drunk, but they now believe he suffered a medical condition.

The chase was featured on the TV show “Most Daring: Senior Smackdown” on the cable channel Tru TV.

In the video, an officer can be heard yelling “Stop your vehicle! Stop your vehicle before you kill somebody.” Loudenback is shown driving his 1987 Oldsmobile the wrong way on Ramsey Road, playing chicken with a police cruiser, and ramming a cruiser before, as the very dramatic announcer put it, “squads on three sides crush his vehicle like a vice.”

Police used a Taser on Loudenback and dragged him from his car, and the TV announcer promises that the “wave of destruction that whipped through the city” won’t soon be forgotten. “Especially because it was 75 years in the making.”

Loudenback did not have visible injuries to his body when he was found dead this morning, and police still are investigating, said Sgt. Christie Wood.

Read a story on the chase by clicking the link below.