BANGOR, Maine — The body of an Ellsworth man who had been missing for more than a week was recovered Tuesday from Taunton Bay in Hancock, the Ellsworth Police Department said Tuesday night in a news release.
Matthew LaForest, 28, was reported missing to the Ellsworth Police Department on Friday, June 19, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. He had not been seen since the previous day.
His body was located and recovered about 5 p.m. on Tuesday by members of the Maine Marine Patrol.
The cause of LaForest’s death has yet to be determined, the police department said. An autopsy at the medical examiner’s office is scheduled for Wednesday.
The search for LaForest was centered on the waters near the Hancock-Sullivan Bridge, Maine Marine Patrol Sgt. Troy Dow said earlier.
LaForest’s vehicle was found in Hancock at the scenic turnout near the Hancock-Sullivan Bridge.
Ellsworth police turned the case over to Maine Marine Patrol, which searched nearby waters with side scan sonar equipment, as well as aircraft. Dow said that tracking and cadaver dogs also were used, as well as divers and surface and shoreline searchers. Sonar equipment and divers were used to investigate points of interest indicated by cadaver dogs.
After several days without finding any signs of the missing man, the search was scaled back, and the marine patrol requested assistance from the Down East Emergency Medicine Institute, a volunteer search and rescue group based in Orono and Bangor.
DEEMI Operations Director Richard Bowie said Tuesday night that the group lent an aircraft manned by pilot Al Jenkins and Gary Soucy, who operated aerial imaging equipment, as well as two Humvees and ground search teams.