Man dies in stream Pembroke swimmer found by dive team

PEMBROKE – The Maine State Police are assisting the Maine Warden Service in the investigation of the death of a 41-year-old man who died Friday night while swimming with friends.

Ronald Trott Jr. was swimming with friends in Pennamaquan Stream, about two miles north of Route 1. His friends went to a store, and when they returned, Trott was gone, although his clothes were still on the side of the river, said Lt. Tim Liscomb of the Maine Warden Service.

Trott was reported missing Sunday. Warden service officers searched the banks along the stream Sunday afternoon, but found nothing. They were assisted by Sgt. Lester Seeley of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.

The warden service dive team arrived Monday morning and found Trott’s body on the first dive.

“It was a tricky, dangerous dive,” Liscomb said, “because it was in front of the dam with all of the pressure of the water against the dam. If there happens to be a small leak or something, that water can suck a diver in, and he wouldn’t be able to get out.”

Trott’s body was taken Monday to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta.

Although Trott was believed to have drowned, a medical examiner official said Wednesday that the final determination of the cause of death would rest on further studies.

Sgt. Dennis Appleton of the Maine State Police Criminal Investigation Division said Wednesday afternoon that a detective was in Washington County assisting the warden service and Sheriff’s Department. “As with all unattended deaths, if local officers request our assistance, we go in to help,” he said.

Appleton said that although he had not spoken with the detective, he did not believe the death was anything other than a drowning.