The Ontario Provincial Police have found the bodies of two Tyendinaga Mohawk men in the Bay of Quinte, two weeks after they were first reported missing.
The two boaters, Matt Fairman, 26, and his brother-in-law, Tyler Maracle, 21, were reported missing after they failed to return home from a fishing trip on April 26. The men were last seen launching their small aluminum boat from Bayshore Road, near Highway 49, at around 1:30 a.m. They reported missing at 8:43 a.m. later that morning.
On Friday, May 8, the OPP received a radio alert from a local boater reporting the location of a body in the middle channel of the Bay of Quinte, between Skyway Bridge and Lighthouse Island.
After retrieving the body and transporting him to the shore, the OPP received a call from another boater about a second body in the same location.
Jackie Perry, the community services and media relations officer at the Napanee OPP detachment, said the men were located “approximately 50 feet apart.”
“The Tyendinaga Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Tyendinaga Mohawk Fire Department would like to thank all of the community members and members of the public for their support and assistance in the search for the missing men,” said Perry.
Since Fairman and Maracle went missing, local authorities and community members searched both on land and water every day.