Search Suspended For Missing Boater On The Bush River

HARFORD COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- A day on the river turns deadly. The search has been suspended in Harford County for a missing Edgewood man who disappeared while boating in the Bush River Sunday night.

Meghan McCorkell has more on the search efforts.

Dive teams spent hours combing the river Monday but still no sign of that missing man.

Cries for help were coming from the water. When Richard Dixon heard them, he knew it was trouble.

"I knew it was a grave situation and I told my daughter to call 911," he said.

He ran to a neighbor's house who had a kayak. That man paddled out to help two men flailing in the water. At the same time, two doors down, Michelle Parkes' husband jumped in his boat and reached one of the swimmers.

"He said it was really hard to even get the guy on the boat because he was just so panicky," Parkes said.

Sunny Singh, 34, was saved but his friend, 35-year-old Khamm Xiarabong, never surfaced.

"We wish we would have been there seconds early. We could have possibly saved the other gentleman," said Teresa Dixon.

The two men were fishing when they decided to cool off in the water.

"They jumped overboard. One of them got away from the boat. The other one tried to help him," said Lt. Nick Powell, Natural Resources Police.

Rescue crews from six different agencies rushed to the scene. Dive teams were out on the water until late Sunday night and back again at 8 a.m. Monday. Crews used helicopters, sonar and police dogs but there was still no sign of the missing boater.

"I've never had to witness anything as tragic as this," Richard Dixon said.

Even more heartbreaking was what was found inside the boat.

"The boat drifted straight toward my pier and I looked inside and I saw two life preservers," Dixon said.

The Coast Guard says they've already searched 17 miles of water in the area with no sign of the missing boater.