An 18-year-old who went missing last week after his boat capsized in the Susquehanna River near Garrett Island was found dead Thursday, officials said.
Divers recovered the body of Mark Everett Coates III between the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge (Interstate 95) and the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge (U.S. 40) around noon on Thursday, according to the Maryland National Resources Police.
The discovery concluded a weeklong search for the Havre de Grace teen, whose 10-foot aluminum johnboat was found near Garrett Island in the Susquehanna River last Thursday. Officials said Coates had gone fishing a day prior.
The Susquehanna River flows 444 miles from Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, to Havre de Grace, where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. Coates’ boat was found near Garrett Island in Cecil County, about half a mile upstream from where he launched it in Harford County.
Agencies and volunteers from across Maryland, including Baltimore City and Charles, Baltimore, Howard and Harford counties, and others from Delaware and Pennsylvania, aided NRP’s search, officials said. The United Cajun Navy even brought 84 volunteers and 34 vessels to search for Coates, NRP said in a news release.
Volunteers from the Christian Aid Ministries Pennsylvania Search and Rescue team located Coates’ body on Thursday.
In a post on Facebook, Coates’ mom thanked the rescue teams, law enforcement agencies and volunteers who helped search for her son and the divers who found him.
“I prayed, I begged, I cried, and I held on to every ounce of hope that somehow I would bring my baby home,” she said in the post. “Markie, I carried you into this world, and I would have given my own life to keep you in it. I don’t know how to live in a world where I can no longer hold you, hear your voice, or see your beautiful face. You will always be my baby. You will always be a part of me.”
This article has been updated.





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