NEWS

Records: Boat crash victim drowned

Elizabeth Murray

Free Press Staff Writer

A Milton man drowned following a boat crash last week in Malletts Bay that has been deemed an accident, according to records from Vermont Medical Examiner's Office.

Police officers wait for the search for a missing boater to resume on Malletts Bay in Colchester on Thursday, June 16, 2016. A crash between two motorboats on Wednesday injured one man and left one man missing.

Officers are continuing to work to determine what caused the June 15 crash, Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison said Thursday.

"We have a crash reconstructionist, but it takes some time," Morrison said.

Rodney Dion, 60, of Milton was driving one of the two boats involved in the crash. Dion's body was recovered June 16 from Lake Champlain in a joint effort by Colchester Police Marine Unit, the Vermont State Police and Colchester Technical Rescue.

Dion's death certificate from the Medical Examiner's Office lists the cause of death as drowning and the manner of death as an accident.

Dion's passenger, Jansen Satterlee, 47, of South Burlington, was brought to the University of Vermont Medical Center with injuries after the evening collision. He was released from the hospital the next morning, Colchester police said in a statement this week.

Rodney Dion, 60, of Milton, is seen here in a photo provided by his brother. Dion died after a two-boat collision on Malletts Bay.

Dion was operating his 20-foot Stingray power boat at about 6:30 p.m. June 15 when his boat collided with a 35-foot Fountain power boat, police said. The crash occurred about a half-mile north of the Malletts Bay fishing access.

The Fountain vessel was owned and operated by Keith Wright, 58, of South Burlington. Three others were aboard: Nicole Wright, 45, and Shane Wright, 21, both of South Burlington, and Kaitlin Kenyon, 24, of Burlington. None of the boat's occupants was injured, police said.

Malletts Bay Fire Department and members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Burlington assisted in the crash investigation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, also provided air support in the search for and recovery of Dion's body, police said.

Police are asking anyone with information about the crash to call Colchester police at 264-5555.

Milton man's body recovered from Malletts Bay

This story was first posted online on June 23, 2016. Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.

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