A 61-year-old New Gloucester man and another man from Madison drowned over a two-day period, the Maine Warden Service said Tuesday.
Brian Minott of New Gloucester drowned Sunday afternoon while swimming off the stern of a pontoon boat on Little Narrows Pond in Lincoln. Wardens said Minott went under and never resurfaced.
The second victim, 38-year-old Scott Newton of Madison, was whitewater rafting with two friends Monday afternoon on the West Branch of the Penobscot River in an area known as the Big Eddy, when their raft flipped. He was wearing a helmet and life jacket. A fisherman on shore called 911 from a nearby campground and several people retrieved Newton’s body.
The Maine Warden Service dive team used sidescan sonar and an underwater remotely operated vehicle to locate Minott’s body in about 30 feet of water, about 1,000 feet from shore. His body was recovered around 10 p.m. Sunday, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service.
The rafting incident took place downriver from the Ripogenus Dam and was a private excursion not connected to a rafting company, Latti said.
The bodies of both men were taken to funeral homes, where they were to be examined by a state medical examiner.
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