Scituate

Authorities ID Body of Woman Missing From Capsized Boat in Scituate

Two people were rescued from the water and brought to shore safely earlier in the evening, but it took crews nearly six hours to locate the third boater

NBC Universal, Inc.

A woman was found dead in the water Saturday night after the boat she was on capsized off Scituate, Massachusetts, authorities said.

She was identified by local police Sunday as 78-year-old Barbara Warner, of Boulder, Colorado.

The boat she was on had initially capsized within the mouth of the North River, but the victim was eventually found off the coast, Scituate Town Administrator James Boudreau said late Saturday evening.

Police in Scituate say they began receiving multiple 911 calls of a boat in distress around 4:37 p.m. Saturday in the mouth of the North River. An elderly woman was reported missing near the shore, according to the Coast Guard, which deployed a helicopter to help with the search.

Two others on board, a man and a woman, were rescued and brought to shore safely, Scituate officials said — but the search for the third victim was a challenging one.

"It’s a very difficult search. It’s a tough place," Boudreau said. "The mouth of the North River is a very difficult place in the best of circumstances. You have adverse winds, you have tides. You have a storm coming in, so it’s a very difficult place to boat nevermind search like this."

Authorities early Saturday evening continued to search for the missing woman near the New Inlet at the meeting of the North and South Rivers, according to Massachusetts State Police.

The local harbormaster, Scituate police and Massachusetts State Police marine and dive teams are also responding to the incident, along with divers from the Duxbury and Brockton fire departments.

The U.S. Coast Guard said that this is the sixth boater this month to have lost their life in the northeast and noted that the woman was not wearing a lifejacket when she was recovered.

Contact Us