Update as of 5:15 p.m. Sunday
A man who owns property along the Housatonic River was on the water searching for a missing dock about 9:30 a.m. Sunday when he came across what he thought was a man's body under water.
The property owner called state police, who immediately dispatched a dive team to search the area. At 10 a.m., divers came up the body of Woodbridge man Richard Fiske, who, at age 75, took his last trip on a row boat on Monday morning. Since then, police, firefighters, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officers and others including friends and family, have been searching for Fiske, whose scull row boat was found capsized later that day.
"I'm glad the family will finally have some closure," said Oxford Resident Trooper Sgt. Dan Semosky.
Fiske was found on the river between Oxford and Shelton, not too far from where the boat was seen capsized, which was a few hundred yards from the New Haven Rowing Club at 407 Roosevelt Drive, or Route 34, in Oxford near the Seymour line. Fiske was a member of the club and took the boat from there on Monday morning as he had done many times in the past.
Semosky confirmed, as police originally thought, that Fiske was indeed wearing a floatation device around his waist but that type of device needs to be deployed by the person wearing it. For reasons unknown, the device was not deployed, Semosky said.
Fiske, a well-known developer and principal of Cheshire-based Ravenswood Development, was described by friends as someone who was in great shape. He enjoyed many types of exercise, and he died doing what he loved in what police say appears to be a tragic accident.
It is not clear exactly what led to Fiske's death - i.e. whether it was a medical condition that caused him to fall out of the boat or some other reason. Fiske's body was taken to the office of the State Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington to determine the cause and manner of death.
Original story:
Rescuers have found the body of a boater who has been missing since his scull boat capsized on Monday.
The body of 75-year-old of Woodbridge was found in the Housatonic River along Roosevelt Drive. Where the body was discovered was not immediately available.
The body was found between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday, Fire Chief Scott Pelletier said.
The discovery comes a day after rescuers held their most intense search - one that included more than 70 people, three boats, cadaver dogs, dive teams and a helicopter - since Fiske went missing Monday morning.Officials took the water level of the river down about five feet on Saturday but found nothing.
An avid row boater, Fiske checked out a scull boat from the New Haven Rowing Club in Oxford at 10:30 a.m. that day. Someone reported seeing his boat capsized at 2 p.m. that day. He has been missing since.
Fiske, the principal of a development company based in Shelton, is married and had adult children.
