An autopsy report by the New Hampshire Medical Examiner's office positively identified a body recovered Thursday near Lyme, N.H. as previously missing kayaker Alan Benjamin of Rochester, Vt., the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said in a press release Friday. After the body was recovered from the Connecticut River, officials identified drowning as the immediate cause of death.
State Fish and Game conservation officers and other state police and fire department officials had been searching the river for Benjamin since he went missing March 25, according to the press release.
Family members last saw Benjamin at his home around 11 a.m. on March 25, the Union Leader reported.
Authorities responded to a call at 5 p.m. last Thursday saying that a body had been found in the Connecticut River along River Road in Lyme, Jane Vachon, a public affairs officer in the Fish and Game Department, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Officials from the state Fish and Game Department and the Lyme and Orford Police Departments arrived and retrieved Benjamin's body from the water, according to Vachon.
State rescue agencies found Benjamin's overturned kayak, life vest, backpack and baseball cap floating in the river near Hanover on March 25. The identification materials in his kayak matched a vehicle found parked at a boat launch in North Thetford, Vt., approximately 14 miles upstream.
Benjamin's family assisted rescuers in search efforts, according to WCAX News. Search-and-rescue dogs and a state helicopter were also used in the search.
Officials had suspected that Benjamin drowned when he did not return from his kayaking trip. Officials did not originally know whether Benjamin was wearing a life jacket when he disappeared, according to WCAX. Benjamin had "some experience kayaking" prior to his disappearance, according to WPTZ News.
Heavy rain left waterways including the Connecticut River "high and fast," with limited visibility, Fish and Game Conservation Officer Tom Dakai told the Union Leader. According to the department's press release, most state boating fatalities occur in early spring because of swift currents and cold water temperatures that have not risen since the winter.
"The fast moving current can easily cause a small vessel to overturn and with the cold water temperatures hypothermia will set in very quickly," Capt. Mark Gallagher, chief of the state Marine Patrol, said in an April Fish and Game Department press release. "Even people wearing personal flotation devices are at risk."
The Northeast's First Coast Guard District estimated a total of 50 recreational boating and paddling deaths in 2009, the Coast Guard News reported on Jan. 8. In 2008, there were 55 fatalities, down from 58 in 2007. Capsizing or falling overboard without a life jacket was the most common cause of death, according to the report.
