First ‘Voice’ winner found dead in Dutch lake at 43

Ben Saunders, who won the first-ever season of “The Voice” franchise, was found dead Tuesday in a recreational lake in the Netherlands. He was 43.

Dutch police recovered Mr. Saunders’ body from the Rijkerswoerdse Plassen, a lake near Arnhem, at about 1:20 p.m. local time after a bystander reported seeing a man enter the water and fail to resurface, DutchNews.nl reported. Authorities have said they “ruled out foul play,” though a cause of death has not been disclosed.

Mr. Saunders had been reported missing earlier that day. His brother, Dean Saunders, confirmed the death in an Instagram post accompanied by a childhood photo of the two of them, writing that his “dear little brother passed away today.”

Mr. Saunders won the first season of “The Voice of Holland” in 2011, the original edition of the singing-competition format that would go on to spawn more than 150 international versions, including NBC’s version in the United States. His victory single, “Kill for a Broken Heart,” reached the top of the Dutch charts, and his debut album, “You Thought You Knew Me By Now,” topped the Netherlands’ album chart that April, according to American Songwriter. He released a second album in 2012 before largely stepping back from music to run Craftmans Tattoo, a shop he opened in Arnhem in 2018, where he continued to perform under the nickname “Tattoo Ben.”

Mr. Saunders had spoken openly in recent months about health problems, telling the Dutch celebrity weekly Weekblad Party that back surgery in late 2024 had failed to resolve a herniated disc and that he was contending with three hernias by this summer, saying at the time, “I think I just have to accept it and learn to live with it.” He was also sentenced in 2016 to 180 hours of community service for assaulting a traffic controller in Hoorn, and DutchNews.nl reported he belonged to the motorcycle club Satudarah, which Dutch courts banned in 2018 as a criminal organization tied to violence and drug trafficking, a ruling the country’s supreme court upheld in 2020.

Marco Borsato, who coached on “The Voice of Holland” during Mr. Saunders’ season, paid tribute on social media, writing, “Dear, special man, my heart is crying,” according to Yahoo Style Canada, which republished an OK! Magazine report on the tributes.

Mr. Saunders is survived by his fiancée, Janita Engels, and their three children, Yahoo Style Canada reported.