Two teenage stepbrothers were found hugging each other after drowning in a river. The bodies of D’andre Graham, 16, and Tavayne Weir, 17, were pulled from the Mousam River in the village of Springvale in Maine on Monday. They lost their lives in the popular swimming spot in Sanford.
‘They showed incredible courage and loyalty, holding onto each other until the very end, demonstrating the deep bond they shared,’ Sanford resident Ashley Brochu wrote on a GoFundMe page for their funeral expenses. The boys went to the Springvale Recreation Area and did not return by their 10pm curfew on Sunday, police told WMTW.
Their parents called the police, who found their vehicle in a car park at the recreation area. The Sanford Fire Department assisted in the search in the dark, and police and firefighters found their bodies after about an hour and a half. ‘Using flashlights and high-intensity lights, they were able to locate them below the water,’ said police Maj Matthew Gagne.
Officials did not immediately determine what led to the boys’ deaths. ‘There was probably a one- or two-mile-an-hour current, too, so that can change where they were located,’ Gagne said.
While their bodies were taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta, Gagne said ‘foul play is not suspected at this time’ and it appears they drowned. They were found about a quarter mile downstream from a cliff where people jump off a 30-foot cliff.
