Body of missing boater recovered in the Susquehanna River
Rescue crews are searching for a 35-year-old man who fell into the Susquehanna River and disappeared tonight. (Photo: Blue Rock Regional Fire District)
(Wrightsville) — The body of a missing boater was found in the Susquehanna River Wednesday evening and recovered by emergency crews.
Boaters at Long Level saw a body floating at about 7:30 p.m.
The Lancaster County coroner identified the body as Jose Perez-Bugue, a 34-year-old boater from Lancaster who fell into the water Tuesday night and disappeared.
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Crews searched for the missing boater for about seven hours throughout Tuesday night, and part of Wednesday morning and afternoon.
“We had completed our intended search plan for today,” Duane Hagelgans, fire commissioner with the Blue Rock Regional Fire District. “The volunteers have spent a lot of time since last evening searching, so we felt it was safest to suspend and let our volunteers recover.”
Crews searched the water from about 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, when the call came in that a man fell in the Susquehanna and disappeared, to 11:30 p.m. last night. The search resumed from about 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Rescuers from York and Lancaster counties had six to eight boats on the water at times and had air support from the Pennsylvania State Police. They focused on an area from Lock 2 to Safe Harbor.
The man who fell in the river and disappeared was on a boat with seven people from Lancaster County. His name has not been released.
Authorities said he and his friends stopped at the Long Level Marina to get fuel, when he slipped between the boat and the dock.
His friends tried to help him, but he floated downstream and went under, according to Hagelgans.
*An earlier version of this story appears below*
A body was found in the Susquehanna River Wednesday evening and recovered by emergency crews.
Boaters at Long Level saw a body floating at about 7:30 p.m. last night.
The Lancaster County coroner has not identified the body yet, and authorities said it was too early to say if it was the body of a 35-year-old boater who fell into the water Tuesday night and disappeared.
This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.
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