Body of missing boater recovered
?CONFLUENCE — The body of a boater who went missing after the boat carrying him and three other people capsized on the Youghiogheny River Lake several days ago was found Wednesday.
Searchers have been looking for the body of 50-year-old Patrick Himmler of Cumberland, Md., since Saturday.
Fayette County Deputy Coroner Paul Kondrla pronounced Himmler dead on the bank of the lake at 6:09?p.m.
Roger Victor, chief investigator for the coroner’s office, said Himmler’s body was located in a deep section of the lake on the Fayette County side.
Searchers used the boat ramp near the Yough Dam to remove the body once it was recovered from the water, according to Victor.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) spokesman Jeff Hawk said recovery crews, joined by a private company hired by Himmler’s family, had been searching for the missing boater.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission also coordinated with ACE in the recovery efforts.
The identities of the three other boaters who were injured when Himmler’s boat capsized have not been released.
Two of the surviving boaters were flown by medical helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., while a third surviving boater was transported to a local hospital by ambulance following the crash. Their conditions have not been revealed.
In addition to ACE officials, volunteer firefighters from Confluence, Markleysburg and Addison participated in the search.
Maryland State Police also provided a side scanning sonar and had a dive team available, and Greensburg also provided a dive team as well and a fire and rescue unit.
Officials said that weather, exhaustion of resources and water depths reaching 90 feet presented challenges in the search. Certified divers can only spend 15 minutes at those depths and the pool of divers available in the area is limited, officials said.