RedactedNarrative: On 8-5-18 at approximately 0950 hours, I Officer arrived on scene to a reported person under a vessel. Once I arrived on scene I noticed that an ambulance was in the drive way and that local fire agencies were on location. The residence was waterfront property that ran along East Creek and I could see a small white vessel bearing MD registration 8195AT in the center of the creek with a white figure on the starboard side in the water. 
  
  The vessel was owned by the victim. Victim vessel was boarded by fire rescue with the assistance of a green john boat on the property and they were paddling the white vessel and the unresponsive individual in the water to shore when I approached. 
  
  I spoke with subject1, one of the EMS from station 8 on location and she advised me the last contact with Victim was at 0555 through a text message. She said the Victim vessel was spotted by Victim's wife, who then called her son in law to investigate the situation. Several attempts were made to call Victim with no response. Son-in-law walked out to the water's edge and described seeing a leg sticking up out of the water near the bow of the vessel. He told everyone to go inside and his wife, called 911 at approximately 0941. 
  
  Victim body was brought on to shore and I could see he had become entangled in several ropes including a boat anchor and a wooden 4x4 beam that was originally in the center of the creek as a mooring post. Victim had several small lacerations to his arms, legs and face. He was pale in color and blue in the face. EMS pronounced Victim dead at approximately 0950 and they stated rigor had set in to his body. The scene was secured at 1025 with yellow tape with the assistance of MSP once the body was recovered from the water. 
  
  NRP investigator arrived on scene and he completed the remainder of the investigation. All events occurred in Somerset county Supplement #1 
  
  The body had dock and anchor lines tangled around the victim's ankles and tangled onto a piling that was in the water. I was informed by the Fire Department that the body was not attached to the vessel by lines. The piling that was tangled in the lines was a random piling stuck in the creek and served no purpose according to the members of the fire department. It was not attached to anything else.
  
  Due to the receding tide, it was clear as to where the boat was originally stuck in the mud. He drew the vessel with the bow of the boat face upstream and the victim's body was near the bow, with his feet towards the bow and the rest of his body, along with the piling, alongside the starboard side of the boat. He stated that there were no lines connecting the boat to the victim, but the body was pushed up against the boat.
  
  There were multiple lines tangled around the victim's ankles/feet. There was also an anchor attached to one of the lines. The smallest gauged line was wrapped a few times around the piling that was found alongside the victim. There were multiple abrasions on the right leg of the victim that appeared to be from the barnacles on the pile rubbing up against the leg. There was also blood seen around the ears of the victim, more prominently around the right ear of the victim. The victim's pants were down and tangled around the ankles and a cellphone was retrieved by the medical examiner. The victim did not have a shirt on when he was found. The victim had an iphone in the right pocket. When taken out, it was functional and displayed the emergency call screen. The phone then lost complete battery power shortly after. I later tried to charge the phone, but was unsuccessful. After photos were taken, the forensic investigator removed the victim's wedding ring in order to return to his wife. A funeral company transport was contacted to transport to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore. While waiting for the transport, I searched the area around the dock. The dock area was not well maintained. There were boards missing and tools and gear left out. At the beginning of the dock, there was a box full of anchors. At the end of the dock, it splits into a "T." To the left, there was a line that went down to the water. The line was pulled up and it appeared that the line may have been broken off. A freestanding piling in the water that served no purpose. Upon inspection of the vessel, there were lines coming off of the stern, both starboard and port sides. One of the ends appeared to be broken off on the end due to the fraying of the line. The other side appeared to be clean cut and (melted). The vessel had multiple objects strewn about and kept in disarray. The top cover of the motor was removed and there was a screw driver jammed into the motor. I attempted to move the propeller, but it would not freely move, suggesting that it was not in gear at the time of the incident. It was reported by the fire department that the engine was down when they arrived on scene, but they had to pull it up in order to move the vessel. The last known communication by the victim was to a friend, at 0555 hours in regards to meeting for fishing later in the afternoon.
  
  The victim has an extensive medical history involving spine and knee surgeries and went for a consult earlier in the week to have spinal surgery done on his upper spine due to his left arm and right leg going numb and consistently falling from the issues. The victim is also diabetic, but takes all medications regularly.
  
  Photos and written statements were taken and the victim's family was notified. The body was transported to the Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy tomorrow (8/6/18).
  
  
  