NEWPORT (AP) – A Newport woman died after falling out of her kayak and becoming pinned against the grate of a dam on Sebasticook Lake on Saturday, police said.

Joyce Packard, who would have turned 53 on Monday, was taken to Sebasticook Valley Hospital after the accident and pronounced dead.

Packard was kayaking with a woman who was in a separate boat when the current pushed her kayak against a dam at the North Street bridge on the central Maine lake, Newport police Lt. Gary Morin said.

Police, who were called to the scene at about 2:40 p.m., were able to rescue Packard’s husband, who heard cries for help and tried to save his wife.

Joyce Packard had been pinned against the dam grate for about 20 minutes before her body could be recovered, Morin said.

AP-ES-09-21-03 1504EDT



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