NORRIDGEWOCK — A woman apparently drowned after going overboard late Thursday afternoon from a motorboat in the Kennebec River, upriver from Oosoola Park.

Few details were available Thursday night, but Sgt. Scott Thrasher, of the Maine Warden Service, said the woman and a man were in the motorboat when she went overboard. Her name and the man’s name were not released until family members could be notified, Thrasher said.

Somerset County Assistant District Attorney Brent Davis was at the scene and the incident is still under investigation, Thrasher said.

The boat involved is a 14-foot, two-seat Starcraft motorboat. Thrasher wouldn’t say if investigators knew if the woman was wearing a safety vest or how she ended up in the water. The boat was impounded as part of the investigation.

State police troopers, game wardens and rescue personnel from Norridgewock and Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan also were on the scene at the riverside park off U.S. Route 2.

The body was taken from a motorboat and put into a waiting hearse at 5:30 p.m., about 90 minutes after emergency radio reports that a person had gone in the river. The hearse from Smart and Edwards Funeral Home in Skowhegan had arrived at the staging scene at the park about 15 minutes before the body was brought to shore by motorboat.

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Before responders arrived at the boat landing with the victim, another motorboat arrived with the man who had been in the boat. He was wet and appeared shaken as he spoke to state police and game wardens.

The search took place upriver from the boat landing, and little of it could be seen from the park; but about half an hour after it began, a private motorboat took a state trooper and a game warden up the river from the staging area to the scene.

A small group of onlookers had gathered as the scene unfolded.

“The officer told my day care lady to move the kids because it was bad,” said Sandy Dodge, one of those at the park.

No other details were available Thursday night.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow


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