MORGANTOWN — A 68-year-old woman drowned in Cheat Lake on Sunday night.
Diana Marie Poland, of Fort Ashby, is believed to have been attempting to board a boat when she fell into the water, according to a Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department press release.
“As far as we know, nobody saw her go into the water,” Chief Deputy Al Kisner told The Dominion Post on Tuesday afternoon.
The sheriff’s department, MonHealth EMS, Cheat Lake VFD and WVU Health Team responded to the call on Mont Chateau Road about 11:40 p.m., according to the release.
Kisner said this is the first Cheat Lake drowning the department responded to this year and that alcohol was involved.
Poland, her husband and a friend were boating on Cheat Lake prior to her death, the release stated.
Deputies were told she was missing, and later she was found between the boat they owned and the dock. The release said CPR was performed on Poland but failed to resuscitate her.
Kisner said it’s unclear how long she was missing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective S. Currie, at 304-291-7218.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were an average of 3,536 unintentional drownings and 332 boating-related drownings per year from 2005 to 2014 — an average of 10 a day.
Moses Lawer-Yolar, 20, a WVU student, drowned in Cheat Lake last year. His friend called 911 after he dived in and did not surface for 10 minutes.
Follow The Dominion Post on Twitter @DominionPostWV. Email William Dean: wdean@dominionpost.com
