DNR Police explain the process of finding missing boaters
WHITEHAVEN, Md. – For almost 40 hours Department of Natural Resources police and others searched the Wicomico River for 63-year-old Terry Martin, the second missing boater.
Martin was eventually found Thursday morning around 9:30 near Mt. Vernon harbor.
The other boater, 60-year-old Hans Ellingsen, was found Tuesday evening roughly 20 minutes after police got on the scene near Whitehaven Ferry.
“Just luckily the first person, for whatever reasons could have been differences in body composition, the first one was floating at the time the officers got on scene and more than likely the second one had not surfaced at that point,” said Sgt. Troy Brimer with Maryland DNR police.
Brimer said Ellingsen was found near the capsized boat, which was found a little north of Whitehaven.
“After locating the first victim, the search continued with our agency, multiple local fire departments, multiple aviation units using both side-scan sonar, bar drag techniques and also thermal imaging from the aviation units,” Brimer said.
After searching Tuesday night and all of Wednesday, Thursday morning Martin was spotted by a DNR helicopter crew.
“We had two boat crews set up for the day and when the first boat crew got underway our aviation unit did a surface search as well and located the second victim,” Brimer said.
Police said Martin was found nearly 3 miles away from where the boat capsized, which Brimer explained to 47 ABC.
“As time progresses gasses may cause the body to float up towards the service at which time tides and wind can affect the movement of where the victim can travel,” Brimer said.
Although some people raised questions about how long the search took. Brimer explained searching the Wicomico River isn’t the easiest thing to do.
“Side-scan sonar and aviation are great tools, but they’re not foolproof unfortunately and just the way this one worked out, they weren’t able to locate anyone on the side-scan sonar,” Brimer said.
He says each blip on the radar could be a body, but it could also be a tree stump or debris.
In the end, Brimer said he’s just happy both boaters were found.
“Just being able to bring closure to the family in a relatively short time period definitely helps,” Brimer said.
