Body of teen swimmer found in N.B.

The body of 13-year-old Shannon Bernard was found Thursday in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, in the St. John River by search teams who had been looking for the girl for five days.

Volunteers with the Down East Emergency Medicine Institute of Bangor were called in to help in the search, and although the high-resolution photos they took of nearly 50 miles of the river from Grand Falls, New Brunswick, south didn’t assist in locating the body, it was a learning experience.

“We’re always trying to learn a little more,” DEEMI Director Richard Bowie said.

Members of the DEEMI search team left Wednesday morning from the Old Town Airport and spent eight hours flying over the St. John River and taking high-resolution digital images.

Even though Bernard was found by search crews on the river before DEEMI had a chance to complete its work, Bowie said they could use the experience to improve their technique for future searches.

The Grand Falls Police Department requested DEEMI’s help in the search. The technology has proved successful in recent months in finding the body of a Middlebury College student 105 days after he was reported missing, as well as finding missing Bangor man Matt Lacrosse, whose body was recovered from the Penobscot River in April.

Thursday marked five days since Bernard was swept away by the St. John’s current in Canada. She and some friends had jumped a fence to go swimming in the river when the current, flowing at about 14 knots, took Bernard downstream.

“That’s closure for at least one family,” Bowie said.

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