AUGUSTA — Authorities this morning released the identities of the other two people involved in a boating accident on Long Lake Saturday that left two dead.
Robert Lapointe, 38, of Medway, Mass., and Nicole Randall, 19, of Bridgton were riding in Lapointe’s 32-foot cigarette boat when it collided with a 14-foot boat occupied by Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Naples and Suzanne Groetzinger, 44 of Windham.
Trott drowned in the aftermath of the accident and sustaining severe injuries to his buttocks, according to Maine’s Office of the Cheif Medical Examiner.
Groetzinger died of blunt force trauma to her head, according to the medical examiner. The two were were struck about 9 p.m. by Lapointe’s 435-horsepower cigarette boat. Randall was in the boat with Lapointe.
Authorities believe the smaller boat was sliced in two in the collision. Lapointe and Randall were thrown into the water by the force of the crash and swam to shore with only minor injuries, while their boat ended up grounded on the east shore 134 feet inland on Bear Point with its motor still running.
The collision occurred near the middle of the 11-mile-long lake south of Bear Point and not far from the Naples town line, officials have said. Groetzinger was a bartender at Bray’s Brew Pub and Eatery in Naples and had only recently begun dating Trott, according to those who knew the couple. Their bodies were recovered Tuesday by divers from the Maine Warden Service, which had scoured a 150-acre section of the lake looking for them and for crash debris.
Game wardens are still at the scene today, continuing work to retrieve crash debris from the lake bottom. The Warden Service will reconstruct the crash as part of their investigation.
Game wardens are continuing their investigation, and once complete, will meet with the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office to discuss the findings of the investigation. No timeline has been set on when the investigation will conclude.
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