‘Well-liked’ teen from Waite dies after canoe flips

TOWNSHIP 6 RANGE 1 – A summer overnight camping trip turned deadly when an 18-year-old Waite man drowned overnight Wednesday in Upper Oxbrook Lake in northern Washington County.

The body of Donald Phelps was recovered in about 15 feet of water Thursday by the Maine Warden Service Dive Team.

Friends and family said that Phelps was a “terrific” young man.

“He was a wonderful young man, the kind of kid you would want for your own kid,” said Dorothy Johnson, a former guidance councilor at Woodland High School. She said he loved hunting and fishing. “He was a Washington County kid,” she added.

Phelps would have been a senior this year at Woodland High School. He was member of the wrestling team and he loved to play softball.

Phelps and some friends had gone to Upper Oxbrook Lake near Grand Lake Stream for a camping trip. They had pitched a tent and were out on the lake in a canoe and paddleboat.

Although details of the accident remain sketchy, it appears that the paddleboat flipped over tossing the occupants into the water.

When Phelps and a friend went to help, the canoe they were in also tipped and Phelps and another young man were thrown into the water. He was not wearing a life jacket and did not know how to swim. The Maine Warden Service found his body around 9 a.m. Thursday.

Sgt. David Craven of the Maine Warden Service described what happened.

“We got the call shortly after midnight that a boat had capsized,” Craven said. “I had two game wardens here all night searching by boat. I guess the incident happened around 8:30 p.m. [There] was fog on the water, which made it difficult.”

Craven said that the Maine Warden Service plane searched the lake Thursday as soon as it was light. “More wardens arrived. Then the Maine Warden Service Dive Team arrived and they recovered the victim,” Craven said. They found him about 100 yards from shore.

Craven said that Upper Oxbrook is a clear shallow lake in a remote part of the county. He said it takes about a half-hour along a rocky road to reach the lake.

Warden Brad Richard, who is the primary investigator, said that the young men were camping. “They had a tent set up,” the warden said. Wardens did not identify Phelps’ companions. “It seems like just young people camping and having a good time at the start of summer,” Craven added.

Asked if alcohol may have been a factor, Craven said that remained under investigation.

Union 107 Superintendent Barry McLaughlin said that the school stood ready to assist family members, friends, students and teachers.

McLaughlin said that Phelps was well-liked. “He just fit in well. He wasn’t in with any one clique. He was equally at ease with the students in the vocational program as he was with students in the college program,” he said. “He was just a good, respectful young man.”

The superintendent said that as word spread Thursday and more students learned of the tragedy, they would be deeply affected. “He was just universally well-liked,” he said.

The principal at Phelps’ high school, Patti Metta, described him as an “all-around” student. “He always had a smile on his face. You never saw him down and out,” Metta said. “Even when things weren’t going great.”

Metta said the high school would be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. “We will provide beverages and food and a place out in the gym. There will be a bulletin board there that the students can [use to] put up pictures or write messages,” she said. “We will have counselors in the building.”

She said the gym would be open to students, staff and community members “or anyone else that feels they just need to have a place to be,” she added.