Found Deceased ME - Prescott Wright, 23, & Zachary Wells, 21, Kennebunkport, 20 Dec 2012
- Thread starter summer_breeze
- Start date
Tide charts for December in Kennebunkport
It seems that low tide was at 10:12 PM on wed night and high tide was the following morning at 4:36. Around there, sandbars often appear at low tide and connect various islands. They rapidly disappear as the tide comes in.
When you grow up on the water and around boats, especially on the NE coast, it's pretty normal to just "take a kayak and toot out to that island over there". When you're young, you'd think doing it at night in the winter is a crazy and fun thing to do.
So if they left the house after midnight and went out via a kayak or something and headed out to the islands, they could very well have parked on a sandbar. It was a clear night, little to no wind and half a moon. It was probably deceptively quite out there. They were going against the tide at the time (which was already starting to come back in) and perhaps when they landed on sandbar, they miscalculated time and as the water overtook the sandbar they either lost their kayak and figured they'd wade/eventually swim to the nearest island.
Once on the island, wet freezing clothes would come off, on the rocks. It seems they both made it to land.
Perhaps they thought, after waiting for first light, that they would try to swim back - but at that time, the tide was already on it's way back out. The cold water, the distance, the tide fighting them would have been no match.
I think this scenario is more likely than someone planting clothing there.
This doesn't, however, explain why, if they tried to swim back, they would leave the life jackets on the shore. Perhaps they thought they were faster swimmers without them?
It seems that low tide was at 10:12 PM on wed night and high tide was the following morning at 4:36. Around there, sandbars often appear at low tide and connect various islands. They rapidly disappear as the tide comes in.
When you grow up on the water and around boats, especially on the NE coast, it's pretty normal to just "take a kayak and toot out to that island over there". When you're young, you'd think doing it at night in the winter is a crazy and fun thing to do.
So if they left the house after midnight and went out via a kayak or something and headed out to the islands, they could very well have parked on a sandbar. It was a clear night, little to no wind and half a moon. It was probably deceptively quite out there. They were going against the tide at the time (which was already starting to come back in) and perhaps when they landed on sandbar, they miscalculated time and as the water overtook the sandbar they either lost their kayak and figured they'd wade/eventually swim to the nearest island.
Once on the island, wet freezing clothes would come off, on the rocks. It seems they both made it to land.
Perhaps they thought, after waiting for first light, that they would try to swim back - but at that time, the tide was already on it's way back out. The cold water, the distance, the tide fighting them would have been no match.
I think this scenario is more likely than someone planting clothing there.
This doesn't, however, explain why, if they tried to swim back, they would leave the life jackets on the shore. Perhaps they thought they were faster swimmers without them?
GGE
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Excellent post, makes a lot of sense. Perhaps your scenario is correct up to the point of taking off clothing and waiting until morning. And no need to leave the life jacket on when you've made it to shore...
Maybe what happened from there was drunken sleep +hypothermia = washed out with the tide?
My only issue with the suggestion that they washed back out with the tide is that if their clothes made it far enough above the high tide line to not wash away after a week worth of high/low tides and some weather, then they certainly were on higher ground when they removed their clothes.
They would have had to have gone back down to the waterline and either become incapacitated before a tide came back to take them away (not likely that happened to both of them at the same time) or they both entered the water willingly, hoping to swim. In my mind, it's highly likely that hypothermia/drunkenness would make them believe that they could swim back. Two lucid young men, especially with a boating background - and especially the one that grew up sailing in the area would KNOW that getting back in the water was a suicide mission.
Unless they find them holed up in a nest they built to try to survive the night, my guess is they went back into the water before the tide/cold overcame them.
They would have had to have gone back down to the waterline and either become incapacitated before a tide came back to take them away (not likely that happened to both of them at the same time) or they both entered the water willingly, hoping to swim. In my mind, it's highly likely that hypothermia/drunkenness would make them believe that they could swim back. Two lucid young men, especially with a boating background - and especially the one that grew up sailing in the area would KNOW that getting back in the water was a suicide mission.
Unless they find them holed up in a nest they built to try to survive the night, my guess is they went back into the water before the tide/cold overcame them.
GGE
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Sorry to quote you again (different part of your post this time) but it occurred to me a little while ago something else that's been bugging me about this scenario of the roommates not saying something sooner.
Like you say above, it depends on the person and their common traits.
School administrators reported them missing after two absences (rather than simply marking them absent and moving on) because they said this was completely out of character for either of them.
GGE
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New article - http://www.wcax.com/story/20432926/search-suspended-for-missing-students-in-maine
in part -
"Police Chief Craig Sanford says divers completed their search operations on Wednesday, and that searches would resume only if there's new information.
Zachary Wells, 21, of Burlington, Vt., and Prescott Wright, 23, of Barnstable, Mass., were last seen drinking with friends a week ago at Wells' home near the Cape Porpoise pier. Both are students at The Landing School, a boat building and yacht design school in Arundel.
Searchers found clothing Monday on an island that can be reached by wading at low tide."
in part -
"Police Chief Craig Sanford says divers completed their search operations on Wednesday, and that searches would resume only if there's new information.
Zachary Wells, 21, of Burlington, Vt., and Prescott Wright, 23, of Barnstable, Mass., were last seen drinking with friends a week ago at Wells' home near the Cape Porpoise pier. Both are students at The Landing School, a boat building and yacht design school in Arundel.
Searchers found clothing Monday on an island that can be reached by wading at low tide."
Steely Dan
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Does anyone know how often these guys would do something like this?
Based on the tidal charts (which I may be reading incorrectly), wouldn't the tide have been coming in between midnight and 4 AM ... so they went out with the tide coming in, perhaps flipped, maybe made it to the Island - expecting someone to look for them in the morning, and when no one came they tried to return during low tide but were overcome by the cold weather?
AzPistonsGirl
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anyone give any weight to the chance they took off willingly, making this look like something it's not?
Sunrise was at about 7am that morning, low tide wasn't until 10:46 am. Another interesting note, the low tide from the night before, when they could have waded over to the island on a sandbar was .1. The low tide the following morning was 0.6 ft higher than the night before -- those 6-7 inches of freezing cold water could make a big difference when trying to wade back on legs that are numb.
At first light they would have been able to see channel markers and tide markers and would see the tide was running out by that time. Even if they had picked the lowest tide possible, it was still 6 inches more water than the night before. They could have waited on the shore for some activity on the water and hope to be seen and then just went for it. I'm not sure how much water traffic is in that area on a typical winter morning.
IHAVENOCLUE
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I was thinking this too... Maybe they staged a drowning so they could escape to a life they felt may not be accepted by their family and friends?
It gives me hope they may still be alive!
I doubt that they were gay and I doubt that they were staging a disappearance. I think that a couple of guys had too much to drink, decided to kayak, or wade, to the Island. Once there, I think they ran into trouble, and it got worse because no one was looking for them. I think they took a risk and tried to cross in low tide, but that their judgement was off and, as a result, they most likely drowned.
princessk
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The only reason I don't totally agree with this is the removal of life jackets..why would they do that?
The same reason they would remove their clothes. Disorientation from hypothermia.
Blondie in Spokane
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Police call off search for two Maine students who vanished with barely a trace eight days ago
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lice-search-Maine-students.html#ixzz2GLiwhUHX
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lice-search-Maine-students.html#ixzz2GLiwhUHX
summer_breeze
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http://post.mainelymediallc.com/news/2012-12-28/Front_Page/Search_for_missing_students_stalled.html
By Tracy Orzel
Staff Writer
2012-12-28 / Front Page
No new information, but a good summary.
By Tracy Orzel
Staff Writer
2012-12-28 / Front Page
No new information, but a good summary.
They were probably already suffering from some hypothermia, where they felt warm while their cores cooled, so they removed them or didn't think that they were necessary. They also apparently removed their jackets and pants.
Just want to say something here. I live in an area with a lot of river/lake sports. And EVERY year without fail, experienced boaters, rafters, swimmers and fishermen drown. Sometimes they jump in to the river to swim around or sometimes they fall in. In all cases that I can remember the life jacket was just sitting in the boat or laying uselessly on the bank. People take them off because they get in the way or because they are over confidant about their swimming abilities or they misjudge the risks of their environment.
Last year IIRC, some guy who had been going up and down the river for 40 years drowned. He had been a good swimmer as well and the life jacket was just a few feet away "in case of an emergency".
I just see this is: life jackets removed because of hypothermia or life jackets removed because of any of the other reasons listed above. I don't think there is any great mystery to do with this "clue".
JMO
Last year IIRC, some guy who had been going up and down the river for 40 years drowned. He had been a good swimmer as well and the life jacket was just a few feet away "in case of an emergency".
I just see this is: life jackets removed because of hypothermia or life jackets removed because of any of the other reasons listed above. I don't think there is any great mystery to do with this "clue".
JMO