CASART - 19th Activation

RAQUETTE LAKE SEARCH & RECOVERY
Hamilton County, NY  06/06-07/07

CASART was activated for a search & rescue mission at the Golden Beach Campground on Raquette Lake in the Town of Long Lake in Hamilton County on Wednesday 06/06/07 by the New York State Department of Conservation Forest Rangers at Ray Brook.  A 57 year old woman, Janet Libert or subject, who was last seen when she checked into the Golden Beach Campground around 2:30p.m. on Monday 06/04/07, was reported missing when she failed to check out the next day Tuesday 06/05/07.  The Forest Rangers had started searching Tuesday night and set up the Incident Command Post (ICP) at the campground. Twelve CASART members reported to the ICP at 8:00a.m. on Wednesday 06/06/07, Tina Bradt, Ron Dearlove, Culeen Dolittle, Deb Evans, Margy Hodel, Bruce Knudsen, Nancy Langham, Paul Littman, Greg O'Hara, Eileen Tobin, Bob Wheeler and Rob Winter.  Eleven field members were assigned to a Type II crew and one administrative member manned the trailer.  Some of the subject’s belongings had been found near the shore of the lake.  The search continued on Thursday morning 06/07/07 with thirteen CASART members reporting, Dan Carmichael, Kay Carmichael, Deb Evans, Bruce Knudsen, Mike Krumme, Paul Littman, Mary Maslyn, Doug Pirnie, Roy Reehil, Corky Risley, Don Schug, Eileen Tobin and Bob Wheeler.  Two administrative members manned the trailer, one field member worked with the dive teams searching the lake and ten field members were assigned to Type III crews.  Around 10:30a.m., the subject was found deceased in Raquette Lake in about five feet of water approximately 70 feet from shore.  The cause of death was determined to be from drowning.  The weather was good, temperatures in the upper fifties and the terrain was easy to moderate in forest and swamp with areas of heavy blow down.

State Police helicopter, State police dive team, Hamilton County Sheriff’s dive team, DEC Forest Rangers, DEC Environmental Conservation Officers, LASAR dog teams, students from SUNY Cortland, Raquette Lake Volunteer Fire Department and volunteers with kayaks participated in the search as well as CASART.

To find out more about the team or to get a membership application write to CASART at P.O. Box 143, Inlet, NY 13360, call us at 315-357-4381, visit our web site at www.casart.org, or send email to webmaster@casart.org.

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