
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991                   TAG: 9104010260
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER                                LENGTH: Medium

YOUTH'S BODY RECOVERED FROM CREEK

Rescue workers pulled the body of a 16-year-old Salem youth from Mason Creek this morning, ending a three-day search that began when the car he was riding in plunged into floodwaters last Friday.

The body of Marcus Baldwin, a Salem High School student and a state archery champion, was found about a quarter of a mile downstream from where the car skidded off Kessler Mill Road and into the creek.

Salem Police Chief Harry Haskins said the body was spotted about 10:15 a.m. by a game warden from a search helicopter flying overhead.

Haskins said the body, which was under about 5 feet of water, was pulled from the creek by a state police diving team.

For three days, murky water and swift currents had frustrated efforts to locate the body. A helicopter had passed over the spot Baldwin was found more than 25 times Sunday, but the water was too muddy for workers to spot anything, Haskins said.

Marcus was a passenger in a car driven by Susan Ashley Carter, a 16-year-old student at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County.

Authorities have said that Carter and Baldwin had been at Star City Archery, near the accident site, then drove north to a convenience store near Hanging Rock and were returning to the archery range. They were caught in a steady rainfall about 2:30 p.m. Friday when the accident happened.

Carter was pulled from the car Friday after rescue workers spent about a half-hour fighting swift currents. She was listed in serious condition today at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Baldwin's uncle, Fonnie Boyd, said this morning that the family - while expecting the worst - is relieved that the waiting is over.

"We can rest now, we don't have to linger on," Boyd said.

Boyd expressed appreciation for the dozens of police, rescue workers, firefighters, friends and volunteers who spent the past three days searching for the body.

Authorities had searched as far downstream as the point where Mason Creek empties into the Roanoke River near Apperson Drive. But they had expected to find the body closer to the accident scene.

They only wish they could have found it sooner, Haskins said.

"The frustration is the hardest part of if," Salem Fire Department Chief Dan Hall said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB