A popular swimming hole in Maine played host to a gruesome-yet-poignant discovery when the bodies of two teenagers, who were step-brothers to one another, were found holding on to each other. Both of the teenagers appear to have drowned.
D’andre Graham, aged sixteen, and his seventeen year-old stepbrother, both of whom attended Sanford High School, had told their parents on that they were heading over to the Springvale Recreation Area on the night of Sunday, July 7. When the pair arrived, they apparently amused themselves by jumping off the rocks on a thirty-foot high cliff into the water below.
But when the brothers missed their curfew at 10pm, their parents called the police with their concerns.
Fire department officials were called to the scene to assist with search and rescue efforts. They brought along equipment that allowed them to floodlight the whole scene, including both the designated swimming area along the Mousam River and the trails along both banks.
The bodies of D’andre and Tavanye were found after an hour-and-a-half long search. They were stuck beneath the water about a quarter mile from a thirty-foot high cliff which marks a popular diving spot. Both teenagers were dead, according to Sanford Police Department spokesman Major Matthew Gagne.
Gagne said that the police did not know if the boys were just swimming, or if they were jumping. There’s no clue as to what time the boys actually went into the water. Since the police received no calls from anybody in the area reporting signs of distress, they are proceeding on the assumption that the boys were alone. Gagne said that the boys’s loyalty and courage and bond showed through in the way that their bodies were discovered clinging to one another.
During the day, the site has life guards, but at night, swimmers enter the water at their own risk.
The family has posted a GoFundMe page to pay for the funeral and other bereavement-related expenses.
