CAMDEN — At 8:34 p.m., May 27, Maine warden divers recovered the body of James B. Wescott, 71, of Belfast, from Megunticook Lake in Camden.

The Maine Warden Service said in a news release that: “At approximately 8 this morning, Wescott was operating a single-person sculling boat with his friend Jeff Foltz, from Camden. Foltz was operating a second boat and witnessed the incident. It is presumed that Wescott suffered a medical event and then fell into the water. Wescott did not resurface. Maine game warden divers and side-scan sonar were deployed this afternoon to locate Wescott’s body, which was recovered from 60 feet of water. Nearly a dozen Maine Game Wardens, personnel from Camden fire and police departments, and members of the Megunticook Lake Patrol assisted with today’s recovery effort.”

Wescott was reported in the water Tuesday morning, clinging to an overturned sculling boat and calling for help. Police and fire units from Camden, along with Northeast Mobile Health emergency medical services personnel, responded to the Route 105 side of Megunticook Lake shortly after 8 a.m. for a report of one man on the water and another man in the water, clinging to the side of a boat, yelling for help. When first responders arrived, they learned that two men were out sculling on the lake when one man saw the other stop rowing and then go overboard.

The man in the water reportedly was grabbing at his chest, but it is not known whether he was having a medical or physical issue or if he was attempting to inflate a personal flotation vest that he might have been wearing.

Maine Warden Lt. Tim Place said Tuesday afternoon that Wescott was boating with a friend when he apparently suffered a medical event, entered the water and did not surface. The area where he was last seen was about 60-65 feet deep, according to Place.

Wescott is the father of U.S. snowboarder Seth Wescott, a two-time Olympic champion in snowboard cross.

Ginger Hite and her sister, Cyncee Webb, were asleep in the upstairs of their family’s camp on the lake, when they heard the calls for help outside.

“I was first awakened by the sound of the eagle calling over the lake, and I thought, wow, the eagle is back. So I laid there for a little longer and then I heard sounds of voices calling for help so I went to the window and looked out,” said Hite. “I told Cycnee to get up, that someone was in trouble and calling for help.”

Hite said the women ran outside and saw two sculling boats to the west, near a point. One of the boats, she said, was upside down in the water.

“I hollered back, ‘I can hear you, what’s wrong, what do you need?’ and I heard a holler for help, and then a holler to call 911, to call the lake patrol,” said Hite. “So Cycnee called 911 and reported it and I jumped into my kayak to go over and try to help.”

Hite said she went out and learned from the rower in the other boat, Jeff Foltz, that he was sculling with Wescott, who was behind him in another boat, and when he looked back, Wescott was in the water with the overturned boat. He said Wescott was holding on to an oar, and then let go and grabbed onto the boat while clutching his chest and calling out.

Before Foltz could reach Wescott, he let go or lost his grip and slipped under the water’s surface and disappeared.

Foltz eventually made his way back to the Webb’s dock and told first responders that he was about 100 yards away from his friend when he heard him yell his name. He said he looked over and Wescott had stopped, and then was in the water. He said he hadn’t lost an oar and nothing was wrong with the boat that he could see. Then Wescott let go of his oars and grabbed his chest and yelled again. He said Wescott was in the water seemed to be grabbing hold of the boat, and that it would just be a matter of time to get to him and tow him to shore.

“But then he slipped off,” Foltz told first responders, before breaking down. “He’s too good a sculler, something had to have happened because he just stopped rowing and then I couldn’t get to him.”

Firefighters, Lake Patrol Officer Justin Twitchell, Hite and some workers at a camp across the lake searched the water for nearly an hour, to no avail. Warden Chris Dyer arrived on scene, and after Camden firefighters Todd Anderson and Cheyne Hansen spent 30 minutes swimming along the surface, with just 5-feet of visibility, the search was called off.

During the time as many as five boats and the two rescue swimmers were in the water, the continued and persistent presence of a pair of loons in the area the rower was last seen, did not go unnoticed by Hite and Webb.

“The loons, they stayed right there, even with all those boats and people around,” said Webb. “I find that very unusual, like they knew something.”

While Dyer was speaking inside the Webber camp with Foltz, Warden Service Chaplain Kate Braestrup arrived as well.

At the time, Dyer said Warden Service divers had been dispatched to the scene and would resume the search for the missing rower Tuesday afternoon. Divers went into the water to begin their search around 4 p.m. May 27.

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or 706-6655.