Three people who had been missing since a weekend boating collision in Greene County have been recovered from the Monongahela River, authorities said Wednesday.
The three were identified by the Greene County Coroner’s Office as 57-year-old Brian Selvoski, 56-year-old Racquelle Rockwell and 58-year-old Eric Rockwell. Rockwell and Rockwell were from Scenery Hill, while Selvoski was from Bentleyville. The cause of death remains under investigation.
The recovery followed a multi-day search that began after a 24-foot private vessel collided with a towboat shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday near Rices Landing. The smaller boat capsized, sending its five occupants into the river.
Two of the people aboard were rescued from the water by members of the towboat crew. Both were taken by medical helicopter to hospitals. The woman later died at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. The man survived the initial rescue, although his most recent condition has not been publicly released.
The three remaining boaters were the focus of an extensive search involving dive teams, sonar equipment, emergency crews and other agencies from the region. Officials shifted the operation from a search for survivors to a recovery effort as the hours passed without locating the missing passengers.
On Tuesday, divers using sonar located the bodies of a man and a woman near the area of the original crash. The final missing boater was recovered Wednesday morning after someone in the Rices Landing area reported seeing an object floating in the river. Recovery crews responded and confirmed the third person was the last missing passenger.
The collision occurred near mile marker 70, close to the Fayette County line. Earlier in the operation, search teams from several counties and neighboring areas assisted local responders, using sonar searches, divers and aerial resources to cover sections of the river.
Authorities have not publicly determined what caused the two vessels to collide. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is investigating the incident, with the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies also involved in the investigation.
The crash resulted in four deaths among the five people aboard the private vessel. One other person was rescued and remains alive, according to the latest available information.
