RICES LANDING, PA — Two bodies were recovered from the Monongahela River on Tuesday after a towboat and a private vessel collided Sunday night, leaving one person still unaccounted for in Greene County. The Luzerne Township Volunteer Fire Company said crews pulled one male body and one female body from the water while search efforts continued for another missing boater.
Officials said the bodies were found during the ongoing operation, though it was not immediately clear exactly where in the river they were recovered. The crash happened around 9 p.m. Sunday near Min Love Park in Rices Landing, and rescue crews initially pulled a man and a woman from the water that night. The woman later died at a hospital in West Virginia, while the man was reported in critical condition.
Crews moved from rescue to recovery after the Sunday night collision
By Monday, Greene County emergency officials said the response had shifted into recovery mode. Richard Policz, the county’s director of emergency services, said divers and other personnel were working through a large-scale search that had drawn help from multiple counties, Pennsylvania State Police and a Maryland state police helicopter.
Policz said teams were using multiple sonar units in the river to help locate the missing person. The emergency response remained active as crews searched the water and coordinated across agencies. Officials have not released the names of the five people involved in the collision.
The shift in tactics reflected the seriousness of the crash and the amount of time that had passed since the initial emergency call. Authorities said the towboat was the first to report the collision, followed by a distress call from another private boat.
The private vessel capsized after hitting the towboat
Authorities said the private vessel involved was 24 feet long and capsized after striking the towboat. The crash set off a response that brought rescue crews to the river Sunday night and then kept search teams working through the following days.
The circumstances leading to the collision remain limited to what officials have disclosed. What is clear is that the impact left multiple people in the water and prompted a multi-agency effort focused first on rescue, then on locating those who were still missing. The incident unfolded on the Monongahela River, a busy waterway in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Officials have not said what caused the vessels to collide or whether any other boats were involved. The main focus since the crash has been finding everyone who was aboard and determining the outcome for the missing person.
Search teams used sonar and cadaver dogs as the recovery effort continued
Murrysville Medic One Dive Team said in a Facebook post that its divers spent Tuesday carrying out systematic sonar grid searches. The team also said cadaver K-9 teams and other divers were working specific areas of the river as part of the recovery effort.
The post described the operation as difficult and challenging, and thanked the agencies involved for coordinating their work. Crews remained focused on the missing boater and on the broader response that had unfolded since Sunday night.
The recovery effort highlighted how many agencies can be pulled into a river search when a collision turns deadly. For now, officials say one person remains missing as search teams continue looking for answers on the Monongahela River.
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