A man who had been missing was found dead early Wednesday morning from a snowmobile accident.

Willard L. Hartsock, 55, from Old Fort, North Carolina, died near Rockwood, on Moosehead Lake in Somerset County. Hartsock had been staying at a rental property on Lake Street in Rockwood and had been seen around the area operating his new 2017 Ski-Doo 900 Expedition ACE snowmobile.

Hartsock’s body was found around 1 a.m. after he apparently approached a wet area on a snowmobile trail, stopped and put the snowmobile in reverse. It appeared the snowmobile then rolled onto him.

When Hartsock did not return home as expected Tuesday night, his family notified police around 9 p.m. A game warden and sheriff’s deputy found Hartsock’s vehicle, snowmobile trailer and various belongings at the rental property, but did not find his snowmobile there, triggering a search on local trails late Tuesday evening.

Hartsock’s body was located along a portion of Interconnecting Trail System (ITS) 88 in Taunton and Raynham Academy Grant.

The incident is Maine’s first snowmobile death of the season. The state saw nine snowmobile-related deaths during the last winter season.

The incident remains under investigation.


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