Solomons, MD – Friday, Oct. 7 was another day on the Patuxent River for avid boater and fisherman Daryl Watson. The Waldorf resident keeps his boat moored on the river near its confluence with the Chesapeake Bay. Around 2 p.m. Watson was fishing about 100 yards away from the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge when something unusual happened.
“I heard tires squeal, shouting and saw someone coming down from the bridge,” Watson told The BayNet during a telephone interview. Despite being taken aback by what he had just witnessed, Watson started up his boat’s engine and headed toward the bridge. He recalled seeing “a young lady just coming back up to the surface.”
Watson put on his lifejacket with the intention of diving into the water when two men in a smaller boat came along and pulled the woman out of the water and into the vessel. Both boats then headed to the Solomons Boat Ramp.
Watson said a Maryland State Police (MSP) trooper picked the woman up and put her on the dock.
“She came to and started crying,” said Watson, who admitted he and the other two boaters were startled, having believed the woman was likely dead.
“She started saying ‘let me go, let me go,’ “Watson said.
Police transported the woman to the Navy Rec Center and from there she was flown to Prince George’s Shock Trauma. At last report, the woman, whose identity has not been revealed by police, was reported in stable condition and according to the MSP, “is expected to survive.”
Watson told The BayNet witnessing the incident has had an effect on him. “I didn’t know she had tried to kill herself,” he said, adding the experience, “takes a toll on the people who tried to help.” He admitted that when he next went out on the river in his boat “I kept looking at the bridge.”
When asked if he would like to someday like to meet the woman he tried to aid, Watson thought about it for a few seconds and admitted that he would. “I’d don’t know what I’d say but I’m glad she didn’t die,” he stated. “I would only want to meet her if she’s grateful for what we did.”
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com
