The body of a man who went through the ice Monday on Megunticook Lake near Fernald’s Neck Preserve was recovered shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Cpl. John MacDonald of Maine Warden Service said the body of the man, Trueman Moore, 20, of Camden, was recovered at 9:49 a.m. in about 22 feet of water. Moore was with three friends when he fell through the ice, MacDonald said, but it is unclear why he ventured out onto the lake. The water temperature is about 30 degrees.
Initially, emergency personnel believed someone fell through the ice on Norton Pond after a call came in at 7:45 p.m. Monday, Lincolnville Fire Chief Ben Hazen said. Rescue workers had a difficult time determining the person’s exact location, as he actually went through the ice on Megunticook Lake.
Several game wardens, Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, and Lincolnville Fire responded. It was presumed that Moore was in the lake and had likely drowned as there were no indications he had made it to shore, MacDonald wrote in a news release.
Voice contact was initially made with the person in the water the evening of March 7, but responders eventually lost contact and were unable to make a successful rescue, Hazen said. Lincolnville Fire did not assist in the recovery effort, he said.
The Warden Service Dive Team set up operations shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday at the public landing on Route 105 in Camden.
Footprints found on the melting ice surface led game wardens to a specific location to begin searching and the body was quickly located, MacDonald said.
“We had to deliver the worst news you would receive as a parent,” MacDonald said.
The warden said the ice conditions make it difficult to walk on the ice on the shoreline and while it is thicker a little farther out, and might support a man, it is completely open in the middle. Fluctuating temperatures this winter have made ice conditions unpredictable on lakes and ponds all across Maine, he said.
The body was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Whether an autopsy will be performed has not yet been determined.
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