The apparent drowning victim, 44-year-old Dong Soo Kim of Chicopee, never surfaced after diving into the water to save his daughter, who fell from their boat. The girl was rescued by passing boaters.
Authorities have recovered the body of a 44-year-old man who drowned in the Middle Pond section of Congamond Lakes on Saturday afternoon.Updates a story posted at 9:22 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24.
SOUTHWICK – State and local police continue to probe the latest fatality in Congamond Lakes, the third drowning death in just over three months at the series of ponds straddling the Massachusetts-Connecticut line.
Police confirmed the death of a man whose body was pulled from the Middle Pond section of the lake Saturday evening, but authorities have yet to release his name.
However, The Republican and other local media outlets have identified the drowning victim as 44-year-old Dongsoo Kim, who reportedly lives in Chicopee. His street address was not immediately available.
Kim dove into the lake to rescue his 8-year-old daughter, who fell from their boat just after noon on Saturday. Police said the girl was rescued by passing boaters, but her father never surfaced.
Kim's daughter fell overboard as the boat made a sharp turn in Middle Pond, the largest of Congamond's three adjoining ponds. The other sections are North Pond and South Pond.
The girl was expected to be OK, but she was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield as a precaution.
Members of the Massachusetts State Police Underwater Recovery Team responded to the scene at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a press release from state police headquarters in Framingham. Divers retrieved the body of an adult male at 8:25 p.m., but police declined to publicly identify the victim until family members were notified.
Southwick Police identified the victim as Chicopee resident Dong Soo Kim, according to a 22News report.
Lt. David A. Ricardi, a veteran Southwick police officer, said the recent Congamond drownings -- three since mid-June -- were puzzling.
"I've been here close to 30 years, and we've never had (these) kinds of incidents happen," Ricardi told Fox Connecticut News.
The other recent drowning victims were 22-year-old Larry Cauley, of Suffield, Conn., who died June 19, and 19-year-old Kevin J. Major, of Westfield, who died July 11.
Prior to those fatalities, the last reported Congamond drowning was in August 2000, when an 18-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., died in South Pond, the second-largest pond. Before that, a 33-year-old West Suffield, Conn., man died after drowning in Middle Pond in October 1994.