A search for a missing man on the weekend ended in tragedy.
Forty-six-year-old Peter Bowers drowned in Carrington Bay on Quadra Island sometime Fri. night.
An annual party takes place at Carrington Bay; this year about 500 people were in attendance, including Bowers who was staying on a friend’s sailboat moored out in the bay, according to Const. Martin Neveu of the Quadra Island RCMP. After attending the party he went back to the boat with a friend. That friend went to sleep at about 10:30 p.m. on Fri. night, which was when Bowers was last seen.
Another friend came back to the boat at about midnight, but assumed Bowers had gone back to the party on the beach when he didn’t see him, so he didn’t think anything of him not being on the boat.
When his friends awoke in the morning just before 10 a.m. and couldn’t find Bowers they called the RCMP.
RCMP arrived on scene at about 10:30 a.m., and a search was initiated with the help of the Canadian Coast Guard and the West Coast Marine Service, with the RCMP dive team coming later in the day.
Neveu said that although RCMP and searchers keep open minds about the possible whereabouts of a missing person, they suspected Bowers had drowned.
“Based on witness interviews, we came to the conclusion that he may have fallen off the boat and drowned,” said Neveu.
The RCMP dive team arrived shortly after 4 p.m., and they discovered Bowers’ body under the vessel only a couple of minutes after they got in the water, which was just before 5 p.m., according to Neveu.
Neveu said Bowers’ body is at the Campbell River hospital awaiting an autopsy. The matter is still under investigation, but foul play is not suspected. Alcohol could be a contributing factor, according to Neveu.
“Alcohol is suspected, but at this point, without the toxicology results, it is only suspected,” said Neveu.