DELTA – O.P.P. scuba divers have recovered the body of a missing teenager after he fell out of a canoe into Lower Beverley Lake in Rideau Lakes Township Sunday afternoon.
The victim has been identified as 18-year-old Brent Hennigar of Kingston, Ont.
Divers found Hennigar’s body around 11 a.m. today (Monday).
Leeds County O.P.P. also corrected the number of people in the canoe – it was two, not four.
The other two people were on a paddle board nearby.
“Two occupants were in a canoe while two others were on a paddle board nearby, when the victim went overboard from the canoe and did not resurface,” Const. Erin Cranton said.
Cranton told Brockville Newswatch that none of the four people were wearing life jackets.
The Rideau Lakes Fire Department and the O.P.P. Marine Unit spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening combing the lake before the O.P.P. Underwater Search and Recovery Unit came today.
This is the second tragedy this season involving canoeists in Rideau Lakes Township.
A fisherman from South Elmsley drowned in early May after the canoe he and a fishing buddy were in capsized on Otter Creek, near the Rideau River. He too wasn’t wearing a life jacket.
In early May, the East Region O.P.P. sent out an advisory urging people to wear personal flotation devices (PFDs).