The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Six-day Search for Missing Snowmobiler Ends

January 12, 2010 - CHINA -- The six-day search for a teenager who has been missing since New Year's Day ended Thursday night after the Maine Warden Service decided conditions on China Lake had become too dangerous to continue it.

Richard "Shaw" Jackson, 18, of China was last seen heading home from Pinkham's Corner Fuel on his snowmobile between 8 and 9 p.m. Jan. 1.

Dozens of people on the ground and in aircraft searched 300 acres around China Lake with no success.

Snowmobile tracks leading to open water on the west cove of China Lake were discovered during the search, but there is no conclusive evidence that they were made by Jackson's snowmobile, said Deborah Turcotte, spokeswoman for the Maine Warden Service.

On Thursday, the warden service said that snowmobiling on China Lake will no longer be permitted because large expanses of the lake are either open water or have ice too thin to bear the weight of a snowmobile.

Snowmobilers should stay off the lake until there is an extensive cold spell, the service said.

Col. Joel Wilkinson, the chief game warden, met with Jackson's family on Thursday to explain why the search was ending. "The family was very understanding," said Turcotte.

Authorities were notified at 6 a.m. Saturday that Jackson, a junior at Erskine Academy, was missing.

A search began later that day in blizzard conditions. The storm dropped 18 inches of snow, hindering efforts to determine which route Jackson may have taken on his trip toward home.

Turcotte said the search involved a massive amount of manpower and equipment, including 13 snowmobile clubs, firefighters, state police, the Maine Marine Patrol, civilian volunteers and even a team of investigators from the New Hampshire Fish and Game department, which operated an underwater rover.

Wilkinson said the case will remain open, with an investigator assigned to handle any new developments.

By DENNIS HOEY, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, January 8, 2010


Lakes: China Lake
Regions: Belgrade


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News