BOWDOINHAM, Maine — A Portland man who had been missing on the Cathance River in Bowdoinham has been found dead, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.
Sgt. Daniel White said the body of 32-year-old Santana Dubon was recovered Sunday afternoon.
The canoeist was not wearing a life jacket, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.
White said Dubon was in a canoe with two family members when the boat capsized around 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The two others made it to shore.
Dubon’s body was transported to the medical examiner’s office in Augusta for an autopsy, White said Monday.
The Coast Guard said one of its helicopters was used Saturday evening in the search. The search continued until about midnight and resumed Sunday at daybreak. Divers, kayakers and a plane were searching the river near the Route 24 bridge in Bowdoinham.
The Cathance is a 16-mile-long river that flows into Merrymeeting Bay.
White on Monday urged that people on the water wear their life jackets.
“It doesn’t get any simpler than that,” he said.
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.
Fingers crossed for a positive outcome!
…and it was probably another case of having life preservers in the canoe but not wearing them. I saw a person paddling a canoe by my home on the lake this morning…no life preserver but at least the person was only 20 feet from shore where the water is only about 4 feet deep.
I used to just throw it in the canoe with some floatation cushions and trust to being able to put it on in the water if I went over. Not anymore. Now I wear it all the time in the canoe, even though I’m a good swimmer. I’ve read too many stories about guys with life preservers in the bottom of the canoe who didn’t get them on and drowned.
Common sense, especially for this time of year when the water is still cold. I wish everyone would follow your example.
Unfortunately, most folks that don’t wear life jackets in a canoe can’t swim, as in the case of Ron Toussaint from Eagle Lake who recently drowned in a cold water lake because he could not swim. My boat is 17 feet long and 8 feet wide at the beam, so I doubt it would roll over on Eagle Lake, but if i’m fishing where I do a lot of standing up in the boat I wear my life vest. I understand that there is a new inflatable life vest available that is comfortable to wear as compared to the old vests.
Yes, I know about the inflatable life vests and am thinking about getting one. They look a lot less confining, and better for fishing, than the conventional types.