UPDATE #1 – OPP SEARCH RIVER FOR UNIDENTIFIED MALE
Body recovered – Identified
(HAWKESBURY, ON) – On Thursday, June 1, 2017 at approximately 2:10 p.m., officers from Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Russell County Detachment, assisted by the OPP Canine Unit, Emergency Response Team (ERT), OPP Marine Unit, and the Clarence-Rockland Fire Department, responded to a report of a stolen boat on the Ottawa River in the area of Parker Island, in Clarence-Rockland Township, with a male last seen adrift in an aluminum boat.
Police recovered the boat on Parker Island but were unable to locate the male when conducting a thorough search of the island and surrounding area.
The OPP Aviation Services and OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit (USRU) also assisted with the search of the waterway.
On June 3, 2017, at approximately 5:45 p.m., the efforts to find the missing male came to a conclusion when a waterfront homeowner of Treadwell, in the Alfred-Plantagenet Township, located the male deceased.
The deceased male has been identified as 34 year old, Benoit FRANCHE of Hawkesbury. The Office of the Chief Coroner attended the scene and the Post Mortem has been scheduled for Tuesday June 6th or Wednesday June 7th at Ottawa Hospital.