NORTHAMPTON — Police ended a two-day search Wednesday for a swimmer reportedly hit by a boat in the Oxbow section of the Connecticut River after finding no body in the water.
Northampton Police Detective Lt. Craig Kirouac said authorities did find a large log in the same area where the incident occurred that had cut marks “consistent with being struck by a boat.” The boat in question also had minimal damage that was consistent with hitting a log, he said.
Several boats and a dive team started searching the water Tuesday afternoon after city police received a 911 call about a boat running over a swimmer. Two eyewitnesses told police and a Gazette reporter at the scene that they saw a boat hit what appeared to be a lone swimmer around 3 p.m. Tuesday. They reported that the suspected person had been the water for 20 or 30 minutes.
The boat’s driver told police that they believed they had hit a log in the water, Kirouac said. Witnesses had seen people swimming in the area earlier, Kirouac said, leading them to believe that the struck object was a person.
“Our investigation, and interviews, and search concluded that there’s no missing swimmer that we’re aware of,” Kirouac said. “There’s nobody known to be missing or unaccounted for.”
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.