Two Montgomery County men found dead in Potomac River

Men discovered after a boating accident Sunday

Two Montgomery County men were found dead in the Potomac River near Cobb Island Sunday morning, after authorities discovered their boat running but unoccupied Saturday night.

Brothers Eriderto Ferrufino, 48, and Franklin Ferrufino, 43, both of Silver Spring, were found dead between 8 and 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson confirmed to the Maryland Independent that Maryland Natural Resources Police found the Ferrufinos’ 13-foot boat

unoccupied, turning in circles in the Potomac River, just a mile from Cobb Island around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. The incident is believed to have been an accident.

Natural resources police, along with Charles County Volunteer Fire and EMS and the U.S. Coast Guard, started a search for the occupants of the boat.

Around 8:30 a.m., authorities found one of the bodies; the second was found around 9:30 a.m., in the same area in 31 feet of water.

The bodies were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsy, according to Thomson.

The cause of the boating accident is still under investigation.

Thomson said that police discovered that the men had been out fishing, and neither of them were wearing a life jacket.

The deaths were the eighth and ninth boating fatalities of the season in Maryland, Thomson said.

She said that out of the nine fatalities so far, no one was wearing a life jacket.

“It really makes a compelling case to wear a life jacket,” Thomson said.