Authorities say they have recovered the bodies of two Tuesday drowning victims from Seymour Lake in the Northeast Kingdom town of Morgan.

The victims are identified as Aidan Connolly, 27, of Roslindale, Massachusetts, and Nicholas Samuels, 29, of Weston, Massachusetts.

Their bodies were found about 100 yards from shore and will be transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for autopsies to confirm the cause and manner of death.

The weather at the time of the incident was cold with increasing rain and strong winds. The lake became choppy with significant waves, ice, and slush. 

Police say the victims set out in a single kayak from a protected cove where the conditions on the open lake were not apparent and worsened while they were on the water. A witness reported seeing two men on the lake in a canoe that overturned.

The men began trying to swim back to shore, but the witness reported seeing them go under the water and not resurface.

Members of the Vermont State Police, including the SCUBA Team, and VSP’s airboats responded to the scene for the recovery operation. The bodies were recovered Tuesday evening.

Fatal ATV Crash – A Pownal man is dead after his ATV left the road and hit a tree.

After 10 pm yesterday, state troopers responded to the area of Washing Brook Rd in Pownal for an ATV crash. The operator, Justin Cameron, 27 of Pownal, appeared to have lost control of his 2021 Kawasaki ATV, leaving the roadway down an embankment and colliding with a tree. Cameron was pronounced deceased at the scene. He was not wearing a helmet. 

Members of Pownal Rescue and Pownal Fire Dept assisted on scene. The ATV was totaled.

Ambulance struck by tractor-trailer – A Lyndon Rescue ambulance responding to a crash on Interstate 91 early Tuesday was struck by a tractor-trailer as the ambulance turned to take an interstate U-turn, the Caledonian-Record reported today.