Police ID 2 kayakers found dead, but an explanation for their deaths is elusive
Portrait of Mark ReynoldsMark Reynolds
Providence Journal
EAST PROVIDENCE – The police have identified two men found dead on Friday not far from two unoccupied kayaks near the shore of Omega Pond.
The deceased kayakers, identified Saturday as Joseph Fritz, 52, of East Providence, and Gregory Boerman, 37, of Allston, Massachusetts, were found in the pond after family members told police that the men had not returned from a kayaking excursion Thursday night, according to East Providence police Capt. Michael Rapoza.
Police learned the men were missing at about 8:40 a.m.
By late morning, the search, which employed drones, had recovered one of the men’s bodies and both kayaks.
East Providence police spent Friday searching for the bodies of two men reported missing early Friday after a kayak outing on Omega Pond. By Friday evening, both bodies had been recovered but identification had not been established.
At around 1 p.m., searchers found the second body.
A double fatality involving kayakers in a pond, as opposed to in the ocean with risks such as tide and current, and during the summertime, when exposure risks are far more limited, is highly unusual.
As of Saturday afternoon, police investigators did not suspect foul play, Rapoza said.
Both bodies were found close to the kayaks, he said.
The focal point of the search was a shoreline area near Roger Williams Avenue.
Omega Pond is fed by the Ten Mile River and empties over a dam into the Seeking to River.
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