Two bodies recovered from Potomac River
Officials had been searching for missing swimmers; bodies have not yet been identified
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Officials have recovered the bodies of two men from the Potomac River, though it is not yet confirmed that the bodies are those of two swimmers that went missing near Old Angler's Inn on Sunday.
The missing swimmers, Asad Nabatzahi and Abdul Doraney, are believed to be in their early 20s and residents of Leesburg, Va. They jumped into the river on the Virginia side along with four relatives on Sunday afternoon, according to Capt. Oscar Garcia, a Fire and Rescue spokesman.
"They were sunbathing and they got hot, and figured they would get into the water and cool off," Garcia said Monday. "They ran into difficulty because of the strong current, and only four adults came out on the Maryland side."
Fire and Rescue officials rescued four men after receiving reports from a hiker on the Billy Goat Trail that there were men in the water near Purple Horse Beach yelling for help. After learning that Nabatzahi and Doraney were missing, swift water rescue teams searched the Potomac as far south as the Key Bridge. As of Tuesday, the search had yielded no results.
Swift water rescue teams were searching the river shortly before noon on Wednesday when they received a call from a hiker reporting a body in the water. Garcia said the body was partially submerged in water near the Maryland chutes, just north of Old Angler's Inn. The body was turned over to Montgomery County police, Garcia said.
Just after 8 p.m. the same day, Fire and Rescue officials received a call from a group of kayakers reporting another body in the water about 300-400 yards north of the American Legion Bridge on the Maryland side of the river. Garcia said the body, which he described as face-up in shallow water, was also recovered and turned over to police.
Garcia said that Montgomery County police would send the body to be identified at the Medical Examiner's office. Thursday morning, police had not yet identified the bodies.
"Obviously it's a high probability these are the two people we've been looking for, but pending identification I cannot make that statement," Garcia said.