Unattended Kayak Prompts Multi-Day Search in Whitin Reservoir
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Unattended Kayak Prompts Multi-Day Search in Whitin Reservoir
Douglas, Mass. - Divers spent over 10 hours combing the waters of Whitin Reservoir for a possible missing person after a kayak was found floating upside down in the water Thursday afternoon.
At approximately 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, August 17th, 2023, the Douglas Fire Department was dispatched for an unattended kayak in the area of the Wallis St causeway.
According to Douglas Fire Department’s Acting Fire Chief, John Furno, when crews arrived they found the kayak floating upside down, but remaining largely stationary in the water. A free swimmer was deployed to investigate the kayak from the surface. With no obvious signs of life in the water two Douglas firefighters, who also serve as divers on the District 7 Dive Team, began dawning their gear to investigate the depths below the kayak.
By the time the divers were suited up, additional members of the District 7 Dive Team began converging on the scene. When the team is activated, on and off duty members from 25 towns are called to provide their expertise as divers, dive tenders, communications specialists, drone operators, and K9 Handlers.
Prior to any crews entering the water, Auburn Fire Rescue’s K9 Riggs, a trained cadaver dog, and handler Matt Ethier, swept the waterline for any indication of human remains. K9 Riggs did not positively alert on any location but he did show interest in multiple areas making it a possibility that a body may be beneath the water.
Divers deployed from the causeway, searching the Reservoir bottom for any signs of a missing person. Divers discovered multiple fishing poles tethering the kayak to the waterbed without clear signs of anyone in the water.
After determining the kayak was empty and not tethered to a missing person, it was cut loose by divers and brought to shore, where it was later turned over to the Massachusetts Environmental Police.
Crews searched the kayak for any ownership markings but none were found. At this point, posts were made on the Douglas Police Department and Douglas Fire Department social media pages asking for any details in regards to the owner of the vessel.
With it being unlikely that someone left the kayak and fishing gear behind and no success from police department canvases of the area, the decision was made to conduct a full-scale search of the water. As many as six divers were in the water conducting a methodical search of the entire area. Each diver was supported by a dive tender communicating with them through numerous tugs of a rope and hand signals.
In addition to divers deployed from the shore, the Douglas Fire Department deployed its boat, equipped with side-scan sonar, to scan the area. The boat marked areas with possible sonar hits and deployed two divers to investigate each possible hit. All hits turned out to be negative.
K9 Riggs also went underweigh on Auburn Fire Rescue’s inflatable boat, conducting scent searches on the water surface. Riggs could be seen hanging over the side of the vessel, secured by his handler, and when necessary, jumping off of the boat to swim to any area he indicated may have a scent of interest.
As darkness set in, the incident command staff made the decision to secure the dive operation for the night, preserving the safety of the personnel on the scene.
At 8 am Friday morning, fire crews, accompanied by numerous state agencies, resumed their search. Hours into Friday’s search, the Douglas Police Department received a tip, likely due to social media posts, that a nearby resident had caught the kayak being carried in the back of a pickup truck at approximately 9:22 a.m. the day prior on their home security camera. The truck was later seen, at approximately 3 p.m. that day, heading away from the scene with no kayak in the bed. With this knowledge and a lack of findings within the water, the decision was made to call off the search. It appears that the kayaker made it out of the water and drove away from the scene.
Chief Furno told Quiet Corner Alerts that something as simple as writing your contact information on the inside of your kayak or boat could be the difference between resolving an unattended vessel with a phone call rather than a major multi-day operation being conducted.
It currently is unclear how the kayak flipped or why the owner left it behind. The Douglas Police Department is looking for any information regarding the owner of the vehicle/kayak pictured. Any information should be directed towards the Douglas Police Department, 508-476-3333.
Chief Furno finished by thanking the firefighters, dispatchers, and police officers of Douglas, along with all of the mutual aid companies. “It was a total team effort and it couldn’t have been done without everyone’s help.”
Agencies that responded, or were dispatched, included: the Douglas Fire Department, Auburn Fire Department, Oxford Fire Department, Grafton Fire Department, Grafton Police Department, Leicester Fire Department, West Brookfield Fire Department, Worcester Fire Department, Southbridge Fire Department, Charlton Fire Department, Uxbridge Fire Department, Charlton Police Department, Millbury Police Department, District 7 Dive Team, Massachusetts Environmental Police, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Massachusetts State Police, and the Special Signal Association Providence Canteen.
