22 Year Old Male Missing

Details

Created on Wednesday, 24 April 2013 20:36

Written by Catherine Vitale

BARNET - UPDATE The body of a 22 year-old male, who police have just confirmed as Zachary Florio of Passumpic, has still not been found in Barnet. Florio went missing at around 2 p.m. Wednesday after a canoe capsized in the water.
Dive teams and authorities searched for hours, before darkness forced them to call off their search for the night.

On day two of the search Vermont state police were back on the banks of the Passumpsic River at 7:30a.m, prepping for what was to be a long day. Three search boats were brought in for the day.

State police teamed up with members of the St. Johnsbury fire department, New Hampshire Marine Patrol, and the New Hampshire Conservation officers to scan a stretch of 5 hundred yards of the Passumpsic. With a helicopter overlooking the scene, sonar gear was brought in at roughly 10:30a.m

Sonar was deployed and after many hours, it seemed they potentially had a good location of where the body may be (indicating that by anchoring a large red bouy in that area). Dive teams were brought in shortly after sonar team located a point of interest.

Two divers were in the Passumpsic for over two hours, doing many laps over the 5 hundred yard stretch. At this time
Florio is still missing and Captain Tim Clouatre said that the search for the missing Passumpsic will resume Friday morning.

News 7 Reporter Brad Hickox was first to speak with officials at the scene of the incident. According to officials, the group of three went into the water just before 2 P.M. The canoe capsized and two were able to escape. One of the two was taken by ambulance, the other left on his own.

Police were initially hoping that Florio was hanging on to the canoe as it floated down the river. However, the canoe alone was spotted in McIndoe Falls.

The St Johnsbury Fire Department Dive Team responded before 5 p.m. and the Vermont State Police Scuba Team responded shortly after that. At that time the search was turned over to the Vermont State Police.

The Vermont State Police as well as New Hampshire Fish & Game entered the water at approximately 6:30, and searched until dark, but were unable to find any trace of Florio.

The Vermont State Police issued a press release, stating that... "Rescue and VSP combed the river banks along the Passumpsic without any sign of the missing individual."

Following the late night search, Detective Lt. JP Sinclair said "Today we've obviously wrapped up with the loss of daylight, and all of our assets are coming back tomorrow, to include our dive team, the fire department, ambulance, all those people, and we'll resume operations in the morning to try and find him."

We will continue to update this story as new information comes in.