Update 10:30 a.m.
TBD reports the woman who went missing Saturday while boating on the Occoquan River is Julie Shew, of Lorton.
Police are still looking for her body and have not officially released her name, said Fairfax County police spokesman Bud Walker.
—
Fairfax County, Va. –– The conditions on the Occoquan River on Saturday that led the disappearance of a 65-year-old woman were unusual, officials say.
Where the water is usually calm, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue spokesman Capt. Willie Bailey said the avid boater and kayaker might have encountered some adverse conditions before she went missing.
“They say [Saturday] there were a couple one or two feet waves here in the lake, and I think that’s kind of strange for a lake to see some to have some waves on the lake. It was windy yesterday so I think the water was kind of rough,” said Bailey.
The woman, who hails from Fairfax County, went missing Saturday night off the Sandy Run Regional Park. Police and rescue crews would later find her boat capsized Saturday, and would search for her until sunset.
When the woman did not turn up Sunday, crews returned to the shoreline at 7 a.m. Monday and changed their operation to a search and rescue to a recovery mission, said Fairfax County Police spokesman Bud Walker.
When the woman’s body is found and identified by family members, authorities will release her name.
On Sunday, police from Prince William and Fairfax counties combed their respective shorelines for the woman, and rescue crews in boats on the river, off Fountain Run Regional Park in Fairfax County, used dogs that were searching for her scent.
While there still was hope she could be alive, officials suspected the woman might be clinging to life on the shoreline or could have crawled into a storage shed on one of the many properties that line the river.
The woman was training for an annual boat regatta, which took place as scheduled at Sandy Run Regional Park.
