Body recovered near ferry terminal identified as missing Ladner man

By Amy Judd & Jon Azpiri Global News

Posted April 6, 2015 11:26 am

Updated April 7, 2015 3:54 am

1 min read

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WATCH: Jill Bennett reports on the woman’s rescue and the man’s disappearance

VANCOUVER – Delta Police say a body discovered near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal is that of a 74-year-old Ladner man who fell into the Fraser River last night.

The man jumped into the water trying to save his wife who somehow fell off a boat moored next to the couple’s float home.

Neighbours have identified the man as Everett McGowin, the operator of the OK Boot Corral in Gastown.

Police say the woman, in her 60s, went overboard near the 4300-block of River Road West at around 9:30 p.m. She is now in hospital where she remains in stable condition.

George Rust says the couple have been his neighbours for about 15 years. “About 9 o’clock last night I heard a strange sound in the water,” he says. “I went down to investigate and found [the woman] in the water in serious distress. I managed to get her to the edge and her hands up on the dock and [neighbour Ellie Cox] and I managed to move her around to the lower float.”

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They were then able to get the woman on to the dock. “She was very cold,” says Rust. They then called 9-1-1.

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“She was conscious, aware, but very very cold,” adds Cox. “Very scared.”

It is unknown at this time how the woman fell in the water. When she was pulled out, she was asking for her husband and that’s when Rust went searching for him throughout the couple’s float home two doors down.

“[She] didn’t know where he was,” says Rust. “That’s why I ran over to his house and through his house and through the garage and through the boat, everywhere. I didn’t know where he was.”