Rescue crews search for possible drowning victim
NEW MILFORD — Crews searched for hours Monday for a missing boy who possibly drowned in Candlewood Lake.
By 7:15 p.m., a Newtown dive team had yet to find the young male in the water off Dike Point Park, where he had celebrated Memorial Day with friends, New Milford Police Sgt. Jim Dzamko said.
The murky waters hindered divers’ ability to find him, he said.
“There is just no guarantee they can find him right away,” Dzamko said.
The dive team might have needed to halt the search when it got dark for the safety of the divers, but would resume in the morning, he said. It was not clear by early evening whether the search had stopped.
The boy had been swimming near Rock Island before park-goers realized he was missing and called 911, Dzamko said. DEEP officials have said the water
is anywhere from 20 to 30 feet deep there, Dzamko said.
New Milford police, New Milford’s Water Witch Hose Co. No. 2, crews from New Fairfield and Brookfield, Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue, and the State Environmental Conservation Police were called to assist sometime around 4 p.m.
Emergency vehicles stationed in Gerard’s Waters Edge Marina, next to Dike Point Park. Authorities blocked off the section of Old Town Park Road right before the park and told drivers the park was closed. Police had not confirmed the boy’s name or age and had not contacted his family. Mayor Pete Bass said the boy was a teenager.
The boy was not with family at the park, but Dzamko said he could not disclose the age of the people he was with because it would reveal the boy’s age. Detectives interviewed his friends, Dzamko said.
The plan Monday night was to bring the boy to Danbury Hospital if he was found, Dzamko said. That plan could change if he was found days later, he said.
The dive team’s sonar equipment picked up a several hits in the water, but it was unclear what this meant, Dzamko said.
“It could be a body,” he said. “It could be a couple of rocks.”
Memorial Day weekend kicked off the summer swimming and boating season.
“This is not the way we want to start off,” Dzamko said. Check newstimes.com for updates.
“There is just no guarantee they can find him right away.” New Milford Police Sgt. Jim Dzamko