Swimmer reported missing at Candlewood Lake
BROOKFIELD — Emergency responders are still searching for a man reported missing at Candlewood Lake Friday and are asking residents and others to stay away from Chicken Rock — known as Green Island — Sunday while the search is ongoing.
The search was taken up again after emergency responders suspended operations on Saturday night, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Director of Communications Will Healey said in an email.
According to DEEP, Connecticut State Police Troop A received a report of a 20 year-old man who was reported missing while swimming near Chicken Rock on Friday evening, Healey said in an email.
A series of agencies, including the DEEP Environmental Conservation Police, Candlewood Lake Authority, firefighters from Sherman, Danbury, New Milford and Brookfield, and Newtown, Danbury, Brookfield and Connecticut State Police dive teams searched the lake, Healey said.
The search marks the second missing person incident within the past month at Candlewood Lake. Over Memorial Day weekend, a Bristol man drowned after he went overboard from a vessel on the water.
Larry Kwokpo Chan, 24, died due to an accidental drowning, according to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Emergency responders spent nearly three weeks
actively searching for Chan in the lake, which is Connecticut's largest. His body was finally recovered June 16.
Chan, born in Virginia and raised in Bristol, was his mother's only son, family members wrote in his obituary.
“He was a musician, playing the drums and beat boxing. He also enjoyed drawing as he was an avid artist. Larry loved to have fun and was very outgoing,” family said.
Chan served for three years with the United States Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan, then went on to work as a customer development mentor at Power Home Remodeling, his family noted.
“From the moment that he started there, he captivated his coworkers with his contagious energy and outgoing personality,” family said, adding that Chan had quickly received a promotion to management. “In addition, he selflessly served as an ambassador to multiple different professional initiatives. His professional success is second to how beloved and cherished he was amongst his peers.”