Search for Missing Snowmobilers on Rangeley Lake Resumes
Media
RANGELEY - The search for three men who went missing on Rangely Lake while snowmobiling resumed this week.
Conditions are far from ideal for Maine Game Wardens to recover anything out of the icy water.
"It's a needle in a haystack down there for us." Say Cpl. John MacDonald, of the Maine Warden Service.
A lake; littered with neon cones and police tape. Marking any area Maine Game Wardens believe the bodies of Glen Henderson, Kenneth Henderson, and John Spencer are believed to be located.
Dives teams standing by, in case the remotely operated vehicle or ROV as they call it comes upon anything under the ice.
"They would identify what would need to be brought up, and we would some how mark it either with the ROV or an anchor and a line, and a diver would descend that line." Says Tony Gray, a Diver for the Maine Warden Service.
The dive, no easy task. Not even for the best of the well trained.
"I asked one of the team members today on a scale of 1 to 10 what this is for a level of danger for them and he says it is a 10." Says Cpl. MacDonald.
Wardens now search in less than ideal conditions, using the ROV as their eyes, with the family of the victims watching and waiting.
"It's not a reality, its not until they bring him home. I know in my head, but its just not a reality." Says Jackie Henderson, with Wife of missing snowmobiler Glen Henderson.
Game Wardens tell us this week is it. If by this Friday they have not recovered the three bodies, the search will have to stop and resume this spring.
"I know there's nothing else they can do. They've exhausted all their possibilities." Says Henderson.
"The best scenario is open water for us now." Says Cpl. MacDonald. "With a sonar to identify what we need to on the bottom or in the water. That is much more affective in finding what we need to find."
Andrew Scheinthal
Weekend Anchor/Reporter
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Andrew joined the WVII ABC 7 and WFVX FOX Bangor News team in June of 2012. Raised in Houston, Texas, Andrew graduated from Suffolk University located in Boston, Massachusetts where he majored in Communications. From July 2011 to December 2011, Andrew was a student reporter for New England Cable News (NECN) and would take part in a live shot every Thursday for The Morning Show, covering topics from the financial crisis to the New England Patriots.
