Father, young son die kayaking

Police still investigating drowning incident on Lake Champlain

A lakeside community in the North Country is in shock and mourning after a young father and his 3-year-old son died after a kayak accident on Lake Champlain last week.

State Police said Patrick S. Wells, 28, took his son, Beckett, onto Willsboro Bay in Essex County on Friday afternoon and their kayak overturned.

They were both found in the water unresponsive. Patrick Wells was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital in Plattsburgh. Beckett was flown to University of Vermont Medical Center, but died the next day. A relative said in a Gofundme page to support the family that Patrick Wells often took his son out boating, and that “Patrick did what any devoted father would do, he put Beckett’s life before his own.”

The long peninsula of Willsboro Point provides a protected bay, which is popular for docking, according to a Lake Champlain tourism website.

The heart-wrenching Gofundme post talks about how Patrick Wells, who worked in the food industry, altered his life to spend every minute he could with his young son, and that he would take Beckett on walks, swimming, the golf course and to the local fire station to see the trucks.

“Even though Patrick only had a little over 3 years to share with his son, he made every one of those days count, whether it was making breakfast or taking him any of the many places he had to go, Beckett was Patrick’s whole world,” the post reads.

State Police were assisted at the scene by the Essex County Sheriff ’s Office, state forest rangers, and Willsboro/essex EMS and Fire Department.

Patrick Wells’ autopsy revealed he died from drowning due to hypothermia, the case remains under investigation, State Police said. A State Police spokesperson said life vests were found in the water in the vicinity of the victims. But officers cannot definitively say they were wearing them, police said.