4:00 p.m.
According to Maryland Natural Resources Police (MD NRP) public information officer Candy Thomson, a second body – presumed to be Melissa Smarr – was found north of the boat on the Charles County side of the water.
The body was that of a female, confirmed Thomson.
Thomson stated that they are attempting to positively identify both bodies, and that families will give a positive identification tonight.
Investigation into the death’s of these two individuals is ongoing, no cause has been found said Thomson.
2:30 p.m.
According to the Maryland Natural Resources Police (MD NRP), presumably found the body of Charles Zintner – one of the two boaters who went missing on the Potomac River last night.
The MD NRP found Zintner’s body 1,000 yards away from the boat.
Recovery teams have located the body of one of the missing VA boaters.
— MD NRP (@MDNRPolice) July 9, 2015
Body male recovered about 1,000 yards south of boat.
— MD NRP (@MDNRPolice) July 9, 2015
Original post
The search is on for two boaters who went missing Wednesday on the Potomac River.
Charles “Charlie” Zintner, 58, and Melissa Smarr, 58, were due back at the Landmark Yacht Club on Aquia Creek in Stafford County at 5 p.m. Wednesday. At 11 p.m., the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office notified the U.S. Coast Guard that the 19-foot vessel the two were aboard never returned.
The vessel was later found by a Maryland State Police helicopter about a mile off Aquia Creek. Today along with the Coast Guard, authorities in Charles County, Md. and Stafford County are trying to find the missing boaters.
“We are trying to figure out in they’re in the water, if they swam to shore, or if someone else came along and picked them up and didn’t return. But it looked like someone had planned to return to the vessel,” said David Marin, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman.
Both Zintner and Smarr frequented the tiny private marina on the Aquia Creek. It was not like the two of them to be out on the water late at night, said Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy.
The sheriff’s office towed a pickup that belonged to one of the missing boaters from the yacht club this morning. The truck will be searched for any clues that may shed some light on what led up to the couple’s boat trip and disappearance.
While the Coast Guard and authorities in Maryland are searching the water for the missing boaters, Stafford investigators are treating this as a missing persons case.
Potomac Local has learned Zintner is recently retired from the Marine Corps Systems Command after serving in the armed forces. He had also worked for the Department of Defense.
Zintner and Smarr had been together for multiple years. Zintner loves dogs, riding horses and motorcycles, and the Green Bay Packers, according to a source.
