Date: Fri 07-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Lake-Zoar-drowning-Haley

Full Text:

SHELTON MAN DROWNS IN LAKE ZOAR WITH CUT (A1)

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Scuba divers found the body of a Shelton man in the waters of Lake Zoar on the

night of June 30, almost eight hours after he had disappeared below the

surface, just upriver of the Shady Rest section of the lake.

Accidental drowning victim Thomas Haley, 42, had last been seen in Lake Zoar

between Shady Rest and the Shepaug Dam.

At 2:46 pm, police received an emergency call at the police station from

someone at 56 Housatonic Drive reporting that a man was missing in Lake Zoar.

The man, Mr Haley, had been in an anchored boat with his wife just upriver of

Shady Rest. Mr Haley reportedly had gone for a swim from the boat and

disappeared a short time later, according to police.

After arriving at the scene, emergency service workers called Northeast

Utilities to have the water flowing under Shepaug Dam stopped to aid them in

searching for Mr Haley. The water's flow was quickly stopped and turbulence in

the river subsided. Due to the river's narrowness in that area, water flowing

downstream from Shepaug Dam flows more rapidly there than in other, broader

sections of the the river.

Northeast Utilities operates a siren system at the base of the dam to alert

people when river levels will be rising. Shady Rest residents say the river

currents in the area can be tricky when water is released from Shepaug Dam,

resulting in undertow.

As the afternoon wore on, emergency service workers watched from the shore.

Some rode up and down the lake in boats seeking Mr Haley.

Some youthful boaters apparently unaware of search operations in the area sped

upriver in a speedboat pulling two water skiiers behind them. Emergency

service workers waved them off the scene, turning them back down the river.

For a time, Mr Haley's wife stood by on shore as emergency workers attempted

to locate her husband. Mrs Haley apparently had received help from someone in

docking her boat after she had noticed her husband missing.

Local emergency workers turned out in force on the afternoon of June 30 when

Mr Haley disappeared into the lake.

State police divers recovered his body at 10:41 pm on the Southbury side of

the river, not far from the waterski jumping ramp in the area.

The state medical examiner's office in Farmington listed the cause of death as

¾asphyxia due to submersion¾ or accidental drowning.

The Newtown Police Department, Southbury Police Department, Connecticut State

Police, Connecticut State Police Dive Team, the Newtown Underwater Search and

Rescue Unit, the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, Bethel

Volunteer Fire Department Dive Team, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps,

Southbury Ambulance, and the regional paramedic, among other emergency service

workers, came to the scene.

A section of Lake Zoar just downriver of Shady Rest was the site of a drowning

in June 1994, when a Bridgeport man jumped from the Silver Bridge to cool off

in the lake but drowned in the process.