Aiden Radosevich had two catch-phrases.
The first, to his friends: Be electric.
The second, to the world: I love you.
“It just speaks to who he was,” Aiden’s father, Shane Radosevich, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the evening of Monday, June 22, two nights after his son’s body was discovered in Okauchee Lake. “Everyone could connect with Aiden.”
Aiden was the kind of person who sat on the couch zinging one-liners with his friends, but also let his dad view his private Snapchat story. He could bond with anybody and everybody over anything and everything, such as grunge music and skiing. His remembrance service on Saturday at St. Charles Catholic Church had more than 50 kids, and just as many adults.
Aiden, an 18-year-old from Pewaukee, fell overboard the evening of June 19 while boating on Okauchee Lake. After hours of searching, authorities found Aiden’s body the morning of June 20 around 11:30 a.m., the Lac La Belle Police Department said in a news release.
“He had such a positive outlook on life and was going and doing so many great things,” Shane said. “It was just heartbreaking that he doesn’t get to finish what he started.”
In the days since, Shane and his wife Lauren have received countless messages from people offering support after their son’s passing. Old friends who they haven’t seen or spoken to in years have sent pictures of them with Aiden. All of them have the same trait: Aiden beaming with a smile, his pearly whites visible for the world to see.
“You would walk into a room, and Aiden would see you and he’d just say something and smile and everyone would just smile back,” Shane said. “I don’t know if there’s many people who’ve ever met him that said they didn’t like him.”
It didn’t matter what he was smiling about, or who he was doing it with. Aiden loved to do so much with so many people.
With Shane, it was bonding over a shared interest in Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine. With his grandpa, it was going to the Road America race track. With his friends, Aiden would go to concerts and lounge on boats.
“Anything life brought, he wanted to do,” Shane said.
Aiden also took care of his 6-year-old Black lab Captain, dutifully sending his parents a picture of them together every day. In his free time, Aiden built computers and even an electric motorbike.
A 2026 Pewaukee High School graduate and freshman dual-enrollment student at Waukesha Community Technical College, Aiden had plans to go to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to get a finance degree. He wanted to make enough to money to retire his parents early. To make his parents happy.
“I just wish everyone could have met him,” Shane said. “[Aiden] was someone that everyone would enjoy.”
Jack Albright can be reached at jalbright@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Father confirms identity of his son, 18, who died in Okauchee Lake
Reporting by Jack Albright, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jack Albright, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
