A 15-year-old Portuguese boy who had been attending an environmental science camp at the College drowned Sunday afternoon while swimming with other campers in the Connecticut River.
Luis Silvestre de Silva Santos, who was a participant in the Jemison Institute's The Earth We Share international program, disappeared Sunday afternoon, but his body was not recovered until Monday morning.
Director of Public Affairs Laurel Stavis said Santos was swimming with the rest of the members of the camp in the Connecticut River, but not at the site where the College provides lifeguards.
The area where they were swimming is a common swimming area, but not one that is officially recognized or authorized, according to Timothy Acerno, administrative lieutenant in the law enforcement division of the Fish and Game Department.
Stavis said why Santos drowned or what his previous swimming experience was is unknown at this time.
Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone said that there was no evidence of foul play.
The search for Santos's body began when the Hanover police were contacted at 4:37 p.m. Sunday afternoon, he said.
The Hanover Fire Department was also at the scene Sunday.
Giaccone said the police contacted the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, which is ultimately responsible for search and rescue missions, at approximately 5 p.m.
Conservation officers from the Fish and Game Department were at the scene by 6 p.m. Sunday night and attempted to find the boy by grappling, which involves "dragging a set of hooks along the bottom of the river," Acerno said.
A group of civilians also searched the New Hampshire and Vermont shorelines, according to a Hanover Police press release.
"The team did not have any success [Sunday] night, so the dive team was notified and they responded first thing [Monday] morning," Acerno said.
The search executed by divers was not a technically difficult one but was complicated by witnesses' reports of where they had last seen Santos, he said.
"The witnesses placed him about 50 feet from shore," Acerno said. The grapplers started at 50 feet and worked outward in order to search the deeper water first.
The divers started inside the 50-foot range and located the body very quickly Monday morning, he said.
Acerno said there was only a minimal current in the water at the time of the search and the bottom of the river was "gravelly" but did not present any problems for the divers.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, the New Hampshire Marine Patrol and the Hanover police, fire and rescue departments conducted the recovery search.
Santos's body was taken to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and the medical examiner declared the incident to be an accidental drowning, Stavis said.
The body will be returned to Santos's home in Portugal.
Stavis said the College Health Services counselors were made available to the campers on Monday.
She said the focus now is on trying to help the rest of the campers cope with the tragic loss.
"We hope the camp will continue," Stavis said. "That decision will be made in the hours and days ahead."
Stavis said that the camp personnel had ongoing communication with the Santos family all of Sunday night.
"Our hearts are with the Santos family and his fellow campers," she said. "We want to do all we can to help them out."
The camp was founded in 1993 by Mae Jemison, enironmental studies professor and the first African-American woman astronaut, although this is its first year at Dartmouth. The Jemison Group Inc., also founded and headed by Jemison, sponsors the camp, which provides tuition, room and board free to participants.
Gwendolyn Artis, director of The Earth We Share, was unavailable for comment.
