HARRISON – The Maine Warden Service confirmed Monday that two people are missing and presumed dead after a collision between two boats on Long Lake on Saturday night.

Warden Service officials have not released their names or those of others involved because of possible charges by the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, Lt. Pat Dorian said Monday.

However, friends of the missing pair identified them as a Naples man and a Norway woman.

David Hines, 55, of Naples said he was a close friend of one of the people missing and identified him as Raye Trott, also 55, of Naples.

“I know it was his boat,” Hines said. “I’ve been in his boat many, many times. And it was his truck and his trailer left at the boat launch.”

Hines said Trott moved from Carver, Mass., to Naples about six years ago and that Monday was his birthday. Trott’s truck and trailer were left at the Salmon Point boat launch in Bridgton, Hines said. He couldn’t confirm his friend had died in the accident and said he wouldn’t believe that until he saw his friend’s body for himself.

“That was his boat, and his boat got demolished, that I can say,” Hines said. “When (the divers) come up with him and I see him with them – when I see him in front of me, I’ll know he’s gone,” Hines said. “He was an absolutely phenomenal guy.”

Hines said it is also believed Trott was with a woman he had recently started to date. The woman, whose first name is Suzanne or Susan, worked at Bray’s Pub and Eatery in Naples.

The owner of the restaurant, Michael Bray, confirmed a bartender from his restaurant was one of the people missing, but would not release her name. He did say she was from Norway and had two or three children.

There was an impromptu gathering at the restaurant on Sunday night in memory of the victims and about 30 to 40 people who knew the missing people attended, Bray said.

“News spreads quickly in a small town,” he said.

Bray said Trott and the woman had started dating, and were going out on the lake to watch the Perseid meteor shower. He said the restaurant would organize a tribute to the pair and a fundraiser to support their families.

Dan Allen of Causeway Marina said Trott was out on the lake almost daily, and he believed he only possessed one boat. He said Trott frequently stopped at the marina.

“He was always having fun,” Allen said.

Officials said a 34-foot-long twin-engine cigarette boat headed north about 9 p.m. Saturday collided with a smaller 14-foot fiberglass motorboat, cutting the smaller boat in two. Two people were ejected from the cigarette boat, which ended up 134 feet into woods on the east shore near the Naples town line. They managed to swim to shore, officials have said, and were treated for minor injuries.

A cigarette boat is a racing craft, usually designed for open ocean high-speed travel. It has a long bow with a passenger and operator cockpit near the stern. Cigarette is a brand name but all boats of a similar style are commonly called cigarette boats, according to the Web site www.boatsafe.com.

At the scene Monday, Dorian confirmed the missing boaters were from the 14-foot craft. He said he does not expect to find them alive.

He said searchers discovered paperwork in the water Sunday that helped confirm the boat’s owner. Two vehicles belonging to the missing people were impounded at a boat dock in Bridgton on Monday.

The collision occurred near the middle of the 11-mile-long lake and was reported by a property owner on Bear Point Road, which is accessible by taking Route 35 to Lewis Road on the east shore. The cigarette boat came to a rest between two cottages 134 feet into the woods from the shore. Responders were initially unaware of the motorboat’s involvement, the lieutenant said.

He was unable to say whether either of the boats had lights on at the time of the collision. According to state law, vessels operating between sunset and sunrise must display navigational lights.

Dorian also said there is no speed limit for boats in Maine if they are at least 200 feet from the shore, and that hundreds of watercraft are on Long Lake on any given summer weekend.

The Warden Service initially searched the shores, islands and surface of Long Lake to find stranded or injured boaters but found none.

The bow of the smaller boat was found capsized on the surface after the accident, as well as some debris, but the stern and the motor are missing. Dorian said the discovery of the motor would pinpoint where the collision occurred.

“There’s a lot of things we’ve not located yet,” he said.

On Monday, Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Warden Service, said 18 wardens, nine of them divers, were involved in an evidence- and body-recovery operation. They searched all day Sunday and from about 8 a.m. Monday to nearly sundown, focusing on a half mile by quarter mile stretch south of Bear Point in Harrison.

Bruce Loring, one of the divers, said the lake is about 40 to 45 feet deep in the search area. Divers, descending in pairs, were taking down high-powered lights and spending about 30 to 45 minutes searching at the bottom.

The divers had wireless communications with each other and the Warden Service boats on the surface. An operator on the boat was tracking where the divers had been using a global positioning system.

Dorian said the divers had only about 10 feet of visibility below the surface, and debris may have gotten buried in the mud at the bottom of the lake.

Both boats have been moved to the Maine State Police lab in Augusta.

Family and friends of the missing boaters gathered on the shore of Long Lake on Monday. Dorian said Kate Braestrup, a chaplain with the Wardens Service, was also on hand.

Responders on Saturday included the fire departments from Harrison, Bridgton and Naples. A Coast Guard helicopter was also brought in to assist in the search. The Maine Warden Service continued the aerial search with a Cessna float plane.

Dorian said there was no time limit on the search.

“I have no doubt it will go for days until we find the missing victims,” he said.

Regional Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.