UPDATE, SUNDAY, 12:30 p.m. Authorities said the body of Richard Fiske, 75, of Woodbridge was recovered from the Housatonic Sunday morning.
Fiske is presumed to have fallen out a boat Monday morning on the Housatonic River after renting a scull (a long row boat) from the New Haven Rowing Club in Oxford.
His body was noticed under water Sunday morning by a person on a canoe. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of death.
Post from Saturday night follows:
Despite an intense effort Saturday that included a helicopter, divers, dogs and people on foot, authorities came up empty in the effort to recover the body of the boater who has been missing since Monday, Nov. 28.
The search for 75-year-old Richard Fiske, of Woodbridge, will now be periodic instead of daily, officials from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said.
Fiske was last seen signing out a scull — a long boat — from the New Haven Rowing Club on Route 34 in Oxford Monday morning at about 10:30 a.m.
His capsized boat was found at 2 p.m.
Authorities have been searching for his body ever since.
Lake Housatonic was lowered Saturday to assist authorities in the search. Divers were in the water as well.
A helicopter did countless low-flying loops over the Housatonic River from the Stevenson Dam to the Derby Dam Saturday as well.
The Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit Dive Team and the Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue searched the water with side scan sonar units, according to a DEEP statement.
Meanwhile, volunteer firefighters searched the wooded shore along the river.
The Saturday search was called off at 1 p.m.
The video above shows the helicopter in the air Saturday. The footage is from Hawthorne Avenue in Derby, looking toward the Derby Dam and the Yale Boat House.
For more on today’s search, including photos, check out Oxford Patch.
