A weekend fishing trip for two Caroline County friends turned fatal today when their bodies were discovered by police divers in an isolated Westmoreland County pond.
Oscar Jones, Jr., 29, and Norman Gill, 42, both of Ladysmith, were participating in a fishing tournament Saturday to raise money for cancer victims, said Oscar Jones, Sr.
They hauled Gill’s 12-foot johnboat and electric motor in the back of a pickup truck more than 40 miles to the pond near Oak Grove. When they didn’t come home Saturday afternoon, family members went looking for them.
The 75-acre pond, sometimes called Bowie’s Pond, is a half-mile down a farm lane beside pastures and vegetable fields off State Route 664 near Ebb Tide Beach. When the family finally found the pond late Saturday afternoon, they found Gill’s empty pickup parked near the pond.
Jones and Gill were both big men. Each of them weighed 250 or more pounds, police said. They would have sat high on the little boat’s two pedestal seats. The boat would have been easy to tip, police said.
One of the seats appeared to have broken, said Virginia Conservation Police Sgt. Richard Goszka.
No personal flotation devices were on board or on the men when their bodies were found, Goszka said.
Jones’ and Gill’s families and friends gathered at the pond Sunday while police and rescue crews from many agencies searched for the missing men all day.
Sunday morning, the little boat was found mostly submerged. Only its bow showed above the water. A hat belonging to one of the men was also found. An evening storm interrupted the search.
Maryland divers searched Sunday. The Virginia State Police Search and Recovery Dive Team searched today. The families and friends comforted each other in the shade of the trees on shore.
“Just waiting. That’s the hard part,” Oscar Jones Sr. said this morning. “But we’re going to wait until we know something definite. We hope and pray they’re all right.”
“It was a diver’s nightmare,” said Sgt. Goszka. He said the bottom of the pond was a submerged forest of tree branches, limbs, sticks and snags. The divers used side-scan sonar to find the bodies, he said.
Gill’s body was recovered about 12:30 p.m. today. Jones’ body was found about 20 feet away and three hours later, caught in an underwater branch, said Goszka.
When the bodies of their men were brought to shore, the families prayed together.
“A lot of emotions can fly in a crisis like this,” said Westmoreland Sheriff’s Lt. John Hoover.
“But I’ve never seen such bonding, such cooperation, such tenderness and love, as those people showed. They were so kind and patient with each other and with us policemen.”
Hoover said the bodies of the drowning victims were taken to the State Medical Examiner.
The Jones and Gill families are bound by kinship and sadness, a relative of both families said.
The 11-month-old daughter of Oscar Jones, Jr. and his wife Tanya died last year.
Oscar Jones, Jr. was first cousin to Norman Gill’s wife Laura, the relative said. Laura Gill’s father also died last year.
Both drowning victims had daughters: Makayla Jones and Nesya Gill, eight. Nesya was at her mother’s side today at the vigil by the pond.
Now the young cousins will share another bond for the rest of their lives:
Their fathers went fishing together on their way to heaven.
Frank Delano: 804/333-3834
fpdelano@gmail.com