PORTAGE LAKE (AP) – The body of a 51-year-old man was recovered Monday from a northern Maine pond one day after a boat capsized and spilled him and three companions into the water.

The victim was identified as Norman Ouellette of Fort Kent. Sgt. Daniel Menard of the Maine Warden Service said the party of four was returning in an open boat from a camp to where they were parked when the boat went over.

Menard said the three others made it to safety after the accident, which took place around midday Sunday on Third Chase Pond.

about 35 or 40 miles from Portage Lake.

Searchers were able to work only briefly Sunday night and the recovery effort resumed early on Monday, Menard said.

The body was recovered in midafternoon in about 30 feet of water, he said.

In central Maine on Sunday, the body of a victim in a similar boating accident was recovered from Great Pond in Belgrade.

Thomas Kopp, a 69-year-old administrator at Colby College, his son Michael and his three grandsons, ages 14, 12 and 10, were on their annual November camping trip to an island on the lake where he had a vacation home when their boat capsized Saturday, according to Lt. Pat Dorian of the Maine Warden Service.

Michael Kopp, of Rhode Island, and the three children were able to make it to shore. Divers recovered Thomas Kopp’s body Sunday in 10 feet of water.

A memorial service will be held Friday at Colby’s Lorimer Chapel.

Kopp, senior associate dean of admissions, had worked at the liberal arts college in Waterville for nearly 30 years. He was hired as assistant football coach and was promoted to head coach before moving into the admissions department in 1983.

AP-ES-11-12-07 1736EST

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