Rhode Island Woman Missing Following Boating Accident On Long Island Sound

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Dangerous tide and current conditions have caused rescue divers to suspend a search in the Long Island Sound waters near Fishers Island for a woman who disappeared when the boat she was aboard sank.

The Coast Guard says they received a distress call at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday that a 50-foot motor vessel named Priceless had struck Pulpit Rock and sank with 10 people aboard. Nine people and a dog were rescued but Mary Patenaude of Westerly, Rhode Island remained missing.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Jeff Gennaro told 1010 WINS reporter Carol D'Auria that it took less than ten minutes for the vessel to sink and that it may have hit a rock.

1010 WINS Reporter Carol D'Auria has the story...

"It sank in forty-two feet of water, right now it's too early to say how this might have happened," he said.

A Coast Guard official says that Patenaude was believed to be in the boat's cabin when it sank and remained missing. Several Connecticut agencies have also joined the search.

A Coast Guard spokesman says the vessel was based out of Westerly, R.I.

Fishers Island is about nine miles long and is located off Southold at the eastern end of Long Island Sound.

Two helicopters  and a patrol boat will continue to search the area overnight, divers will return to the water on Monday.

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