Vt. hiker who died in fall identified

GEORGETOWN – A Vermont man was identified Monday as the victim of a weekend hiking accident on Malden Island.

James Dupont, 29, of Essex Junction was walking with a group of hikers early Saturday afternoon when he decided to leave the trail and fell 25 feet when he apparently slipped off a cliff, the Maine Marine Patrol said.

A woman who was not a member of Dupont’s hiking party climbed down the cliff and dived in the water after him, said Marine Patrol Sgt. Rene Cloutier.

Jessica Daly of Derry, N.H., spent more than an hour in the water with Dupont trying to revive him, Cloutier said. She was treated at a Boothbay Harbor hospital, where she remained Monday.

The victim’s wife told officials that her husband was an experienced climber, Cloutier said.

Dupont, a seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher at St. Albans City School, grew up in Milton, Vt., and graduated from Milton High School in 1995 before going on to Johnson State College, where he graduated in 2000.