Canoe capsizes on Nissitissit River; rescue efforts in vain
By Robert Mills MediaNews Staff 09/12/2008
PEPPERELL -- Ron Mann found the 20-year-old under about 6 inches of water and tried to free him from a tree in the rushing Nissitissit River, until both of his arms bore red marks from the effort. But there was nothing anyone, including the ex-Marine, could do. The 20-year-old Pepperell man who drowned in the river on Sunday afternoon was so firmly entangled in a downed tree, held by the powerful current of the rain-swollen river, that even firefighters and a dive team would need another two hours to get him free.
Police did not immediately identify the man, nor the three other local men who were canoeing with him yesterday. Police said the four men, two in each canoe, had just put into the river a few hundred yards upstream before one of the canoes capsized. One man swam to safety.
Police were called to the area about 300 yards from the covered bridge on Groton Street, about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. That's about the same time Mann and Nandee Willets were horseback riding in the conservation area between the Nissitissit and Nashua rivers and heard someone screaming. Willets said a Bedford police officer, Kristen Dileen-Sullivan, had also been riding in the area and tried to help, along with Mann. Mann said he found the victim's friends at the scene. They said they couldn't find their friend and believed he was still in the water.
Mann saw a heavily dented red canoe, and after moving it, began feeling around in the muddy waters until he found the 20-year-old, who had already stopped moving by that time.Mann said the victim was tangled in downed trees, which he estimated at 6 to 8 inches thick. He said he tried to pull the victim free, to lift his head above the waters and to move the trees, all to no avail. The firefighters and police who arrived soon after also had trouble. "They made a valiant attempt to rescue him, but the current was too strong to pull him out of the water," police Sgt. Armando Herrera said. "They did everything they possibly could to get him out." A dive team was called in from Lowell, and members eventually had to use chain saws and hand saws on the trees before they could free the victim, Mann said.
Police said the victim was pulled from the river about 6:30 p.m. His body was turned over to the state medical examiner's office. Police hauled the dented canoe away in the back of a pickup truck. Police said the victim was from Pepperell and his friends are all from the area. One was checked out at a local hospital but was not seriously injured, police said.
Mann appeared shaken as he sat outside his home a few hundred yards away, at the foot of the covered bridge on Groton Street. The marks on his forearms were still raw. "I feel sorry for the guy's family," Mann said. "I did all I could." He and Willets said people often canoe in the river. The river, swollen by the weekend's heavy rains, was flowing out of its banks into a field, Willets said. The nearby Nashua River was expected to soon crest just 4 inches below flood stage, according to a river forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors that river from a gauge nearby.
Willets said she knows three of the young men from around town, and both she and police said they do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved. "Those are good kids," Willets said. "They come from wonderful families. Good Christian people." No one could remember another drowning on the river, except many years ago when a man was found near Route 111. "I think this will change the way people use the river," Willets said. "This is a true tragedy."
