By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Stanley J. Langley, 51, left the Marshall Hall boat ramp in northwestern Charles County on Monday to go fishing by himself. About 7:30 p.m., he called his wife on a cellphone, authorities said. Four hours later, she reported him missing.

Rescuers found the body of the Indian Head man Wednesday in the Potomac River near Hallowing Point, Va. They had recovered his 17-foot motorboat two days earlier about two miles south of the boat ramp, authorities said.

Langley was the fourth boater in the Maryland area to be found dead in three days. Officials were investigating the causes of death in each case.

Sgt. Ken Turner, a spokesman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police, said investigators do not think that the incidents are related.

Turner said that there was one similarity in the deaths.

"No one was wearing a life jacket."

Langley's wife reported her husband missing about 11 p.m. Monday because he had not returned from the fishing trip. Rescuers searched the Potomac for almost 36 hours before a Charles fireboat crew found the body, Turner said.

Friends and family members who were gathered outside Langley's home Thursday declined to comment. Police would not release additional information.

The day before Langley's body was found, rescuers recovered the body of a boater who had gone swimming in the Chester River near Love Point.

Mathew J. Mohr, 35, of Baltimore was boating on the river Sunday with three friends when the group decided to stop for a swim, Turner said. Mohr seemed to struggle, Turner said, and a female friend tried to pull him to safety.

When that failed, another person jumped in the water and pulled the woman to safety, Turner said. "When they turned back around to try to throw the life jacket to Mohr, he had disappeared beneath the surface," Turner said.

On Monday, rescuers found the bodies of two Woodbridge men who had left Wayside Park to go fishing, Turner said.

Juan C. Lopez, 35, and Jose Alexander, 33, went out in a canoe about 2:15 p.m. Sunday, telling family members they would be back in a few hours. When the friends didn't return by 6:30 p.m., relatives called police. The men's bodies were found Monday in the Potomac about a mile north of the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge.

Last year, there were 10 boating-related fatalities in Maryland, Turner said. There have been seven this year, including the four this week.