Body found in river as authorities search for missing Nashua teen

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A team from NH Fish & Game prepares to join the search for a missing Nashua teen believed to have slipped through a culvert into a sewer drain.
A team from NH Fish & Game prepares to join the search for a missing Nashua teen believed to have somehow slipped through an underground sewer drain into the river.

Jacob Gouley
Jacob Gouley

UPDATE: At about 5:20 p.m. Nashua Police issued the following statement:

“On Oct. 23 at 11:55 a.m. the air wing located the body of a male in the Merrimack River in Tyngsborough. Positive ID will be completed by the Mass Medical Examiner’s office. Based on clothing and body description it appears to be Jacob Goulet, the 16 year old who disappeared during Friday night’s torrential rain. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates and the entire Nashua community, at the probable tragic loss of Jacob Goulet.”


Original post from Sunday at 1:35 p.m.

NASHUA NH – Several state and local authorities converged on Nashua Saturday to search for the body of a Nashua teen, Jacob Goulet, feared to have been swept into the river through one of the city’s Combined Sewer Overflows during Friday night’s torrential rains. The search continued Sunday, and authorities were expected to provide an update Sunday at around noon. However, a body was spotted Sunday in the Merrimack River by an air patrol, just south of Nashua, in Tyngsborough.

The body has not yet been identified.

Jacob Goulet, 16, a Nashua North High School student, was reported missing Oct, 22. On Friday night, police said they received a report at about 9:50 p.m. that someone may have fallen down into an underground drain in the area of 75 Main St. A flash flood warning was in effect at the time.

Jacob Goulet told his parents he was walking to a friend’s house Friday night and hadn’t been heard from since, according to Nashua Police. The area where the teen may have entered the sewer system is along the probable route he took to his friend’s house, Baxter said. Some “generic personal items” were located by the opening to the underground sewer interceptor service area. There have been no witnesses to the incident.

However, that evidence, along with other information gathered by police, appeared to indicate the teen may have somehow gone down into the underground system and was swept away with the water, which was flooding several waterways and streets in Nashua and other areas due to heavy rain. Authorities continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the teen’s disappearance.

Massachusetts State Police in Tyngsborough prepare to recover a body from the river found during a search for a missing Nashua teen.
Massachusetts State Police in Tyngsborough prepare to recover a body from the river found during a search for a missing Nashua teen.

On Sunday NH Fish and Game continued to search the Merrimack River in the area of the Veterans Bridge in Nashua with divers, while NH State Police flew a helicopter over the Nashua and Merrimack Rivers.

A few people with private boats also joined in the effort to locate the teen.

On Sunday afternoon a body was located in the Merrimack River by Massachusetts State Police from the air, but had not yet been identified as the missing teen. Massachusetts State Polie crime investigators, Nashua and Tyngsborough, Mass., Police remain on the scene.

We’ll bring you more information as it becomes available.

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!