BETHEL, Maine — Maine game wardens say a 75-year-old Maryland woman drowned in the Androscoggin River Wednesday evening.
Wardens say Xiaolian Ding, of Silver Spring, Maryland, drowned when the canoe she was in overturned and she became trapped underneath around 5:30 p.m.
Ding, her 82-year-old husband, and her 49-year-old daughter had rented a canoe in Bethel and had just started their trip downriver when the canoe they were paddling became stuck on a rock.
The husband was paddling in the stern of the canoe with their daughter paddling in the bow and Ding sitting in the middle when their canoe became wedged on a rock.
Wardens say the father and daughter tried to push the canoe off the rock, and as they did the canoe overturned, with Ding and the daughter thrown from the canoe and Ding trapped underneath the canoe as it floated downriver.
The father and daughter were able to get the canoe and Ding to shore as a witness on the opposite shore called 911, according to wardens.
Ding was unresponsive once on shore, and efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.