NORRIDGEWOCK — A woman died Thursday after going overboard from a motorboat in the Kennebec River, a short distance from Oosoola Park.
Few details were available Thursday night, but Sgt. Scott Thrasher of the Maine Warden Service said the woman and a man were in the boat when she went overboard. Their names were being withheld until family members could be notified, Thrasher said.
Somerset County Assistant District Attorney Brent Davis went to the scene, and the incident is still under investigation, Thrasher said. The boat was impounded by authorities.
The motorboat involved is a 14-foot, two-seat Starcraft. Thrasher wouldn’t say if investigators knew whether the woman was wearing a safety vest or how she ended up in the water. A possible cause of death, such as drowning, a fatal injury or a health emergency, was not released.
Maine State Police troopers, game wardens and rescue personnel from Norridgewock and Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan also were on the scene at the riverside park off U.S. Route 2.
The body was taken from a motorboat and put into a waiting hearse at 5:30 p.m., about 90 minutes after emergency radio reports that a person had gone into the river. The hearse from Smart and Edwards Funeral Home in Skowhegan had arrived at the staging scene at the park about 15 minutes before the body was brought to shore.
Before responders arrived at the boat landing with the victim, another motorboat arrived with the man who had been in the boat. He was wet and appeared shaken as he spoke to state police and game wardens.
The search took place upriver from the boat landing, and little of it could be seen from the park. About half an hour after the search began, a private motorboat took a state trooper and a game warden from the staging area to the scene.
A small group of onlookers had gathered as the search unfolded.
“The officer told my day-care lady to move the kids because it was bad,” said Sandy Dodge, one of the spectators at the park.
No other details were available Thursday night.
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