JANESVILLE — One person drowned after a canoe carrying three people capsized Sunday evening after a canoe capsized in the Rock River in downtown Janesville.
The Janesville Fire and Janesville Police Departments were first called out about 4:45 p.m. Sunday for reports that multiple people were in the water at the Milwaukee Street Bridge in downtown Janesville, according to a news release.
When they arrived, first responders found two people from the canoe who had safely made it to the river’s banks between the Milwaukee Street bridge and the Janesville Town Square pedestrian bridge.
They told responders that a third person was in the canoe that had an issue and capsized.
They told authorities that the third person had surfaced briefly after the canoe capsized and was not seen again.
JFD and JPD began to deploy units along the banks of the river to search for the third person from the canoe.
The JFD deployed an inflatable boat rapidly to the area to search and check the canoe. The JFD also deployed its dive boat with SONAR capabilities to the area. The dive boat arrived at the incident scene with multiple divers on board.
After twenty minutes of searching with the SONAR, an object was located.
A diver was sent down, and the body was located and removed from the water.
The scene was turned over to the Janesville Police Department and Rock County Medical Examiner’s Office for further investigation.
The identities of the subjects involved are not being released at this time.