Police on Friday pulled the body of a woman from the Kennebec River in South Gardiner more than a month after a woman plunged through the ice about eight miles upstream in Augusta.
Jeff Nichols, spokesman for the Maine Marine Patrol, said the medical examiner’s office will work to identify the body.
The marine patrol has been searching the river for Kelly Voytasko, 54, since March 21 when she disappeared beneath the ice just north of the Calumet bridge, as residents of Kennebec Plaza, a residence for the elderly behind the Inn at City Hall, watched. Police said she appeared to have jumped into the river intentionally and spurned rescue attempts.
On Friday, Marine Patrol Officers Clint Thompson and DenniAnne Kilgore recovered the body around 1 p.m. after it was seen floating about 20 yards from shore near the Pittston side of the river, across from Westerlunds Landing in South Gardiner.
Nichols was not sure whether the woman was carrying identification. Anthony Voytasko, Voytasko’s husband, said shortly after her disappearance that he couldn’t find his wife’s driver’s license and assumed she carried it with her to assist with her identification when her body was recovered.
Nichols was not sure how long it would take for the medical examiner to confirm the identification of the body found Friday.
Augusta police have investigated Kelly Voytasko’s disappearance as that of a missing person, but investigators think she is the woman who on March 21 walked onto the ice and jumped into an open section of the river. State wardens and marine patrol initially discontinued the search for Voytasko’s body because of dangerous conditions created by the swift-moving river and ice. The search resumed a few weeks ago when the ice cleared and conditions improved.
Anthony Voytasko said in March that he believes the woman who went into the river in Augusta to be his wife. Kelly Voytasko left behind too many items, such as her wedding ring, cellphone and all of her credit cards and money, to draw any other conclusion, he said. Kelly Voytasko had been in a deep depression and had made suicidal threats previously.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
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