CAMDEN — Maine Wardens, rock climbers with the Coastal Mountain Search and Rescue team, Camden police and members of the Camden Fire Dept. had a sad and grim day Saturday, July 19, as they searched for and eventually found a man's body at the foot of Maiden's Cliff close to Route 52 near the Camden/Lincolnville town line.

The day began early with a call to the Camden Police Department about a missing man.

According to the Maine Warden Service, a North Carolina man in his mid-40s had told his wife he was going hiking at Camden Hills State Park on Friday, July 18, and when she didn’t hear from him by the next day, she contacted law enforcement Saturday to say he was missing. 

First responders located his car at a Camden Hills State Park trailhead parking lot off of Youngtown Road in Lincolnville.  They also located his unattended backpack at the top of the mountain near the edge of a cliff.

The Maine Warden Service responded, and then called for Coastal Mountain Search and Rescue assistance.

Coastal Mountain SAR members are experienced rock climbers and provided help by belaying down the face of the cliff to find the man.

Game Wardens, along with members of the Camden Police Department, Camden Fire Department, Camden Hills State Park staff, Maine State Police and Coastal Mountain Search and Rescue began searching the area on top of the mountain and below.

The Camden Fire Dept. was called upon to assist in the search with its drone.

Members of the Coastal SAR team made their way down the cliff and found stray belongings of the man further down from the top of Maiden's Cliff. According to Coastal SAR Chief Matt Silverio, the team conducted a belayed lower through a boulder field. 

At approximately 3:15 p.m., a volunteer located the man, deceased, at the base of the cliff, the Warden Service said. 

Wardens, along with six members of the Coastal Mountain Search and Rescue team, transported the man’s body off the rocky mountain side, which took nearly four hours.

Members of the Fire Department climbed the trail to retrieve the man's belongings at the top of the cliff.

The body will be examined by Office of the State Medical Examiner, as is the case with all unattended deaths. The death is not considered suspicious, the Warden Service said.

In all, over a dozen people assisted with the recovery, including six members of Coastal Mountain Search and Rescue, three game wardens, two Camden police officers, two state park staff members, one state trooper and several members of the Camden Fire Department. 

Maiden's Cliff has been the spot of tragedy over the centuries. 

On May 6, 1864, Elenora French, of Lincolnville Beach, climbed Megunticook with three others. At Maiden's Cliff, overlooking Megunticook Lake, Elenora fell over the rocks and down the side of the mountain, while, it has been said, in pursuit of her hat carried away by the wind. She came to rest approximately 300 feet from where she fell and died late that night from internal injuries.

Her sister told the Camden Herald in 1915: "I do not know how my sister came to fall. I shall always think that a puff of wind took her hat, and she fell over going after it. The cross was erected some years later." 

In 2014, a man was convicted of attempted murder and two counts of elevated aggravated assault following a jury verdict after his wife said he pushed her off Maiden's Cliff.

The April 7, 2011 incident drew mountain rescue teams and firefighters to the steep slope of Megunticook, off of which the woman had tumbled over boulders, and had eventually crawled to the side of Route 52, which runs below the mountain alongside Megunticook Lake.

A motorist stopped to help her, and then the search was on for her husband, who also was injured in his descent of the same rubble-filled cliff. Both were transported to area hospitals and survived.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657