Around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, emergency officials recovered the body of Joseph Vincent Rossi, 47, of Edgewater, MD. Rossi had gone missing on Saturday, June 4, while he and his wife were out boating on the South River.
Part of the recovery mission on Sunday, June 5. Click for source.
Rossi had rented the powerboat and was with his wife and two elementary-school aged children when his hat blew into the water. He jumped off the boat to retrieve the hat, but failed to put the boat into neutral before doing so. His wife is not a boater and did not know how to put the boat into neutral to stop forward motion. The female passenger was able to flag down another boating party who came up beside the moving vessel, jumped aboard, and put the boat into neutral. They circled back to find Rossi, but were unable to find him.
Divers acting in the recovery mission Sunday morning. Click for source.
Emergency officials were alerted shortly after 7 p.m. with a call to 911. Search crews were on the water and in the air for an hour and a half, but could not locate the body. Rossi was presumed dead at 8:25 p.m., and crews continued to search for him using sonar in the darkness. Rossi’s body was recovered by divers around 10 a.m. Sunday morning.