Marine Patrol and Topsham Police Officer Troy Garrison search for the missing canoeist in the Cathance River Sunday. (Darcie Moore / The Times Record)
Two people made it to shore but 32-year-old Santana Dubon of Portland did not.
Sgt. Daniel White with Marine Patrol said this morning the initial call came in at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night for a male individual involved in the capsizing of the canoe.
How the canoe capsized or whether Dubon was wearing a life jacket remains under investigation, White said as of abut 10:30 a.m. He confirmed the other two people who made it to shore are relatives of Dubon.
Two boats were launched Saturday night and Marine Patrol and local firefighters aboard searched for about two hours until it became too dark. Then a Coast Guard helicopter arrived from Cape Cod and used very powerful lights to search the area.
According to a Coast Guard press release posted on its website Saturday night, “Watchstanders from the Sector Northern New England command center received a distress call at approximately 8:12 p.m., from Maine Marine Patrol, reporting that they were conducting a search for a missing canoer. The missing man was in a canoe with two others when the canoe capsized. The two other persons aboard made it safely to shore.”
According to the statement, a Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter responded to assist.
White said this morning the helicopter searched for a little over two hours.
“We were here until midnight last night,” White said. “We all met back up right around daylight this morning where we have Marine Patrol boats, there are local individuals from the area that are in their boats, we have Marine Patrol aircraft, we have the state police dive team which consists of Marine Patrol officers and state troopers.”
A big challenge today for divers searching in the murky water was how far they could see in the water, a maximum of about 1 foot White said.
Working in the moment when asked how long they would search, White said, “We’ll search as long as we have to until we’ve exhausted all means.”
White said the Marine Patrol didn’t want to have a lot of boats in the area they were searching stirring up the bottom f the river. He asked if anyone sees anything that may raise suspicion related to this search effort to call the state police.
Bowdoinham Fire and EMS, Topsham Fire and EMS, Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department, and Topsham Police Department were on scene Saturday night in addition to the Marine Patrol. Bowdoinham Fire and EMS and Sagadahoc County Sheriff Cpl. Ian Alexander were again on scene today.
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