Police identify couple killed on South River

Two people were killed while riding on personal watercraft on the South River just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said.

The couple, a husband and wife from Reston, Virginia, have been identified as Elizabeth Howle, 48, and Jeffrey Sessions, 53, Department of Natural Resources officials said.

Hours after the fatal incident, Natural Resources Police Superintendent Col. Robert “Ken” Ziegler at a news conference warned against boating at night.

“We’re asking boaters to be cognizant of safe boating practices,” Ziegler said.

The bodies of a man and woman were recovered from the river north of the South River Bridge in Edgewater about 5:15 a.m., a fire department spokesman said in a statement released Wednesday morning.

The deaths come after a tragic weekend on Anne Arundel County waters. Four people drowned between Friday night and Saturday, including a Secret Service agent who was kayaking with her boyfriend in Annapolis.

County firefighters were called to the South River after receiving a 911 call reporting two personal watercraft users missing in Edgewater.

Witnesses said the man and woman left a residence in the 200 block of Edgewater Drive after 1:30 a.m. They told police and firefighters they heard a collision around 1:45 a.m. and contacted 911 shortly before 2:30 when the two people had not returned.

The pair hit a day marker, according to Julie Brown, boating education coordinator for Natural Resources Police. Officials suspect trauma played a role in the deaths. Neither victim was wearing a life jacket, Ziegler said.

“It’s frustrating — frustrating personally and frustrating professionally,” Ziegler said about the South River crash. He pleaded with the public Wednesday morning to wear life jackets while out on the water.

Responders located a personal watercraft with “visible impact damage” without anyone on board, according to a statement from the Department of Natural Resources. The watercraft is a 12-foot, 6-inch 2019 BRP Queretaro Sea-Doo and was registered to the Sessions.

In addition to county firefighters, units from the Annapolis Fire Department, Maryland Natural Resources Police, a Maryland State Police helicopter and the Coast Guard began a search for the couple.

Both were declared dead at the scene once the bodies were recovered.

Natural Resources Police planned a news conference Wednesday morning in Annapolis to discuss water safety at the start of a long July Fourth weekend. State and county government offices will be closed Friday, and many are expected to take advantage of the four-day weekend to boat, swim and fish. In other accidents since Friday:

Special Agent Stephanie Hancock, of Annapolis, died in a kayaking accident on Spa Creek in Annapolis on Saturday.

Mark Vetock, 27, of Glen Burnie, and Tevin Calhoun, 27, of Pasadena, drowned Saturday while crabbing in Stoney Creek in the Riveria Beach neighborhood of Pasadena.

Police have yet to identify the man who drowned before dawn Sunday after falling off a pier at 1001 Carrs Wharf Road in Edgewater.