Divers Locate Body of Missing Boater

The 35-year old victim was from Middletown.

Divers have located the body of a boater that went missing in the Connecticut River on Sunday evening.

A Coast Guard spokesman says the victim is a 35-year old man from Middletown. His body was located just before 1 a.m. by a regional dive team about 100 yards south of where he went missing in the Wethersfield Cove.

Multiple rescue crews from Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, East Hartford, Hartford and Glastonbury scoured the Connecticut River, hoping to find the man.

For hours, crews searched a 2.5 mile area of the Connecticut River, from the Wethersfield Cove to Rocky Hill, to no avail.

“The search continued until approximately 8 p.m., Sunday. At that time, it was terminated and turned over into a recovery operation,” said Capt. Thompson.

 Few details surrounding the incident are being revealed but initial reports from State Police were that a woman who had been on the boat with the man had waited an hour or more to call 9-1-1 and may have been searching the river herself trying to find the man after he jumped from the boat to take a swim, Coast Guard Officials said.

“The area that they were in is a very popular boating spot. There was a lot of boat traffic on the river this evening. The weather conditions were good,” said Capt. Thompson.

The accident is under investigation.

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