3 Hospitalized After Boat Capsizes

A 21-year-old Norwalk, Connecticut, woman says she thought she lost her boyfriend when a boat they were in capsized in southwest Connecticut.

Sarah Kowats tells The News-Times she and two others were shifting positions when one end of the 10-foot-long boat went underwater at Lake Lillinonah.

The Newtown resident says she and 26-year-old Wayne Pelham swam ashore while 28-year-old Shane Barrese struggled in the water.

They pulled Barrese ashore, but he blacked out after swallowing too much water. After several failed attempts to revive him, they spent five hours searching for a way out of the nearly 2,000-acre Paugussett State Forest through rain and thunder.

Eventually they found a trail and to Newtown and found help.

Rescue teams found Barrese early Tuesday. The three were treated at Danbury Hospital.