Carroll E. Wiles

Lewiston Evening Journal
Lewiston, Maine
Monday, January 4, 1937
p. 1

Diver to Search For Bodies in Sebec Lake

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Jan. 4 -- A strong current racing through the Sebec lake "narrows" today delayed officials in their search for bodies of a mother and son believed drowned when their automobile broke through thin ice.

Officers expressed opinion the surge of the current might hamper efforts of a diver to locate the bodies of Mrs. Gertrude Wiles, 63, and Carroll Wiles, 30, both of this town. The mother and son went to their lake camp Saturday and have not been seen since.

Deputies sheriff found a hole in the ice yesterday large enough to have been made by an automobile. Grapplers found flecks of tan paint on their grapples. The Wiles car was painted tan.

Sheriff Thomas Foulkes said a film of gasoline was noticeable on the water near a spot called the narrows where the lake if 50 feet deep.

Mrs. Wiles' aged mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Dunham, and a sister, Miss Marcia Dunham and Wiles' two motherless children lived with the pair here.

Excursion Ends At Lake Bottom

Mother and Son Found at Bottom of Frozen Lake Sebec in Maine -- Gasoline on Water Clue

Dover-Foxcroft, Me., Jan. 4 -- The tragic ending of a mother and son's happy holiday excursion came to light today with the finding of the bodies of Mrs. Gertrude Wiles, 63, and Carroll Wiles, 30, in their automobile at the bottom of frozen Sebec lake.

Discovery of the bodies by diver Frank Hanson confirmed a theory of Sheriff Thomas Foulkes that the couple's automobile broke through the ice Saturday night while they were returning to their Dover-Foxcroft home after supper at their lake camp.

They perished while Wiles's' two motherless children and Mrs. Wiles's aged mother waited their return to resume a weekend celebration of the new year.

A gaping hole in the two-inch sheet of ice covering the lake, and a slowly spreading film of gasoline on the surface of the water gave searchers their clew to the couples disappearance. When grappling irons campe up flecked with tan paint like that of the Wiles's car, Diver Hanson went down 50 feet through the icy water and found the car and the bodies inside it. Wreckers brought up the car late today.

Carroll married Winifred E. Blakeney 12 September 1930 in Maine.¹⁰⁵²⁵ (Winifred E. Blakeney was born 16 December 1911 in Dexter, Penobscot County, Maine,¹⁰⁵²⁷ died in 1935 in Maine ¹⁰⁵²⁸ and was buried in 1935 in Dover Foxcroft, Piscataquis County, Maine at Gray Cemetery ¹⁰⁵²⁸.)