BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MOSCOW -- A 4-foot-long wooden board solved the mystery of a capsized boat Monday, capping a four-hour search for possible drowning victims that drew 30 rescue workers to the Ohio River.
The board and metal hitch, part of the dock from which the boat was pulled, was found underneath the 20-foot Larson pleasure boat that was towed upside-down to the riverbank in this southern Clermont County village.
It proved the severely damaged fiberglass boat had been docked -- not on the river with passengers.
Fueling the search for possible victims were two life jackets seen floating near the boat, and a report by an 8-year-old camper that he'd seen two fishermen Monday morning in a boat similar to the one found capsized. The boy told Clermont County sheriff's department investigators he was at the Indian Mound Campground in the Neville area when he saw the men boating upstream toward the Meldahl Dam. He later saw the capsized boat and life jackets drifting downstream.
Monday afternoon, the fishermen were located near the dam. Searchers from the Washington Township Emergency Services, Campbell County (Ky.) Water Rescue, and Anderson Township Fire and Rescue joined the search, which began at 11:30 a.m. A Hamilton County helicopter flew overhead.
"Until you can ascertain what the situation is, you go on the assumption there might be a person in the water," said Nancy Heffner, public information officer for Washington Township Emergency Services. "I wouldn't want to be out there today. It's a lot more dangerous than it looks."
Many workers stood in the pouring rain waiting for a tow truck big enough to pull the boat from the edge of the water.
The debris-strewn Ohio was about 10 feet above its normal level due to heavy rains, officials said.
The search for the boat's owner might be more difficult than determining the boat's fate.
It had no registration and appeared new, said Officer Troy Thompson of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), division of watercraft. He said the boat might never have been out on the river until Monday.
The department had run the hull identification number, similar to the VIN in automobiles, through the ODNR computer without immediate luck.
