Teen’s body recovered from lake

TOWNSHIP 1 RANGE 8 WELS – The body of a teenager from New Jersey who came to Maine to reunite with high school friends was recovered Wednesday morning from Millinocket Lake after a boating accident the previous evening.

Michael Schafer, 19, of Atco, N.J., and two other teenagers fell into the cold water at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after their canoe flooded and capsized 100 yards off the shore of Reeds Island, Sgt. Patrick Dorian of the Maine Warden Service said Wednesday.

Schafer and nine friends arrived Monday afternoon at a rented camp on the lake, having visited the area the previous year after graduating from high school, Dorian said.

Nicholas Castine and Lauren Schenk, both 19 and of Hammonton, N.J., were able to swim to the island, which lies about 800 yards offshore, and shout for help.

The accident occurred after the wind picked up during their return trip from the island and a wave swamped their aluminum canoe, Dorian said. The two saw Schafer only briefly before he went under, he said.

None of the three teenagers was wearing life jackets, Dorian said.

Castine and Schenk, rescued by their friends and local camp owners, were treated Tuesday night on shore by rescue personnel, he said.

The lake water temperature was 45 degrees Tuesday night, the warden official said, and only slightly warmer Wednesday, when three Maine Warden Service boats zigzagged across the foggy lake in search of the young man.

Schafer’s body, clothed only in a T-shirt and underwear, was recovered in 8 feet of water fewer than 50 yards from the island’s shore, Game Warden Mike Joy said after he found the young man.

“I think he had kicked some of his clothes off,” Joy said Wednesday, standing lakeside in the drizzling rain. “That’s cold [water] – you can’t swim in that.”

Joy, one of several divers who searched the lake, found the body after a 21/2-hour hunt that began at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Warden service boats combed the rocky area near the place Schafer was last seen, dragging teams of two divers at a time back and forth across the lake. The searchers used Global Positioning Satellite technology to map out a virtual grid, Joy said later.

The first dive team changed out of their full-body wet suits and sipped hot coffee after the initial 45-minute search, chatting with a dozen fellow wardens at Twin Pines Campground, where dive operations were centered.

Around 10:30 a.m., two boats returned to shore, followed by a third boat carrying the man’s body. The snow shovel and 3-foot pine board used Tuesday night by some of Schafer’s friends to paddle a canoe to his aid rested on shore near where his body was unloaded from the boat into a waiting hearse.

The three New Jersey teens have known each other since kindergarten, Dorian said.

Schafer, who according to his friends was an excellent swimmer, may have instinctively gasped for air upon hitting the frigid water and struggled to swim in the sweat shirt, jeans and heavy work boots he was wearing, Dorian said.

Wardens arrived at the scene Tuesday night, but darkness and water temperatures delayed the search until Wednesday morning, Dorian said.

Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, the warden official said.

The lack of life jackets, coupled with chilly temperatures, contributed to a death that could have been prevented, he said.

“Had they had life jackets, [Schafer] would have survived,” Dorian said. “The weather, the wind, everything worked against them.”

Boaters are particularly encouraged to use flotation devices this week, which is National Safe Boating Week, as many people make their first venture onto the water for Memorial Day recreation, Dorian said.

“I can tell you one thing for sure: You’ll never find a body on the bottom with a life jacket on,” Joy said.