Body of missing New Hamburg man is found by police
NEW HAMBURG — The body of Andreas Pfenning, 24, was found in the Nith River about 10 minutes past noon on Thursday. The OPP dive team made the discovery.
Nearly three days of searching came to a heartbreaking end.
Pfenning, described as a “hobby hunter” by his uncle Wolfgang, had left work early to go goose-hunting by himself, only a few steps from home, along a fast-running and unusually high Nith River.
He never returned home for dinner. His body was found “not too far” from where he was believed to have entered the water, his family said.
“I assume he underestimated the elements,” his uncle Wolfgang Pfenning said on Thursday afternoon.“And he was overwhelmed.”
New Hamburg, where the organic vegetable farm run by Pfenning’s family is well-known, was overwhelmed with grief on Thursday.
“A nice young man has been lost to us,” Wilmot Township Mayor Les Armstrong said. “It’s very hard for everybody. It’s a beautiful family that do a lot for the community. It’s very sad.”
Pfenning worked at the family farm off Waterloo Street, which is run by his parents, Ekk and Jenn, and his uncle Wolfgang. On Monday, Wolfgang said he was the last person to see Pfenning as his nephew left for lunch and planned to go hunting afterward. Some of Pfenning’s clothing, a gun and a goose carcass were later found at the river’s edge.
“Andreas was a 24-year-old young man with lots of energy and passion — especially for making malt and brewing beer in the kitchen,” said Wolfgang, who worked closely with Andreas on the farm where barley malt is grown. “Whenever you wanted a smile on his face, all you needed to do was talk about malt.”
As many as 200 showed up for a candlelight vigil for Pfenning at Kirkpatrick Park Wednesday night, Armstrong estimated. As many as 150, Wolfgang said, helped local police in the search for his body.
“It gives a lot of strength,” Wolfgang said of the community support. “Big thanks to the young generation that came out with tons of energy. There are a lot of nephews and nieces of mine who were all cousins to Andreas. They worked for three days with, like, two hours of sleep.”
Armstrong described the community support for the Pfenning family as amazing. One fellow, Armstrong said, helped search from dawn to dusk each day. And the number of cars he saw in the Pfenning driveway on Wednesday was remarkable.
“There had to have been 60 or 70 vehicles back there, from people that were coming in to help search,” Armstrong said. “And some of those cars had two or three people in them. Lot of people. Lot of community support. Lot of people out helping them.”
But on Thursday, the search had ended grimly.
“He was liked by all his young, young cousins,” Wolfgang said of Andreas. “They were a tight little community.”