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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x1649541001

By Peter Reuell/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Tue Sep 18, 2007, 10:00 AM EDT

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Officials in Maine are still investigating a fatal boating accident last month in which a power boat driven by a Medway man slammed into a smaller craft, killing two people.

It is unclear whether Robert Lapointe, 38, of Medway will face charges related to the mid-August crash and the deaths of Terry Raye Trott, 55, and his girlfriend, Susanne Groetzinger, 44, on Long Lake in Harrison, Maine.

Although more than a month has passed since the crash, Maine Warden Service spokesman Mark Latti yesterday said investigators are still busy reconstructing exactly what happened.

"It's unusual in the fact that so much of the debris was retrieved by our dive team on the bottom of the lake floor, and then has to be reconstructed," he said. "It's not like a wreck of a snowmobile or an ATV, so that makes it difficult."

Besides the complication of recovering debris from water from 30 to 50 feet deep, Latti said, investigators have interviewed dozens of witnesses in an effort to piece together the crash.

"The crash occurred on one of the busier lakes in southern Maine," Latti said. "There are a lot of people there who have information concerning the crash. There's been a lot of people to interview and get statements from, and compare the information and cross-check it with others.

"We're still working on it," he said. "There's no time line on it."

Investigators say Trott drowned and Groetzinger was killed by a blow to the head when Lapointe's 32-foot cigarette boat, equipped with two 435-horsepower engines, collided with Trott's 14-foot boat, slicing the smaller craft in half.

Lapointe, a former Framingham resident and 19-year-old Nicole Randall of Bridgton, Maine, who was in the boat with him, were thrown clear of the crash and swam to shore.

After slicing through Trott's craft, Lapointe's boat wound up grounded 134 feet inland with its motor still running, according to investigators.

Once the investigation is complete, Latti said, the Warden Service will make its report to Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson, who will decide whether to file charges.

"What we want to do is make sure we investigate this as completely and thoroughly as possible before we present our finding to the district attorney's office," Latti said.

Lapointe's attorney, J. Albert Johnson, did not return a phone call seeking comment yesterday, but in an earlier report he told the Lewiston Sun Journal the incident was "a tragic accident with a terrible loss of life which is under intensive investigation by my office."