Daniel P. Donahue was one of three University of Rhode Island students who were reported missing after rowing onto Narragansett Bay in the predawn hours of March 13.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 27, 2006

BY RANDAL EDGAR
Journal Staff Writer

NARRAGANSETT -- After more than six weeks, the wait is over for the family of a University of Rhode Island student who had been missing since he and two friends borrowed a small boat and rowed onto Narragansett Bay.

Yesterday at about 8:45 a.m., the Coast Guard retrieved the body of Daniel P. Donahue, one of three URI students who disappeared in the predawn hours of March 13.

Donahue's body was found about 100 yards from the Point Judith lighthouse, shortly after a lobsterman spotted it and called the Coast Guard, authorities said.

The state medical examiner's office later identified the body based on dental records and clothing that matched what Donahue was wearing when he disappeared, said Steven H. Hall, chief of the Department of Environmental Management police.

The discovery brought a new wave of pain to Donahue's family, who were forced to relive the anguish they felt when the students were first reported missing, despite feeling relieved that the body had been found, said his father, Curt Donahue of Glocester.

"It's kind of strange, because I wanted them to find him and I didn't want them to find him," he said last night. "Now it's like we're mourning all over again."

"I'm glad he's home because I know he's in heaven. It's just really hard, it really is. We're not supposed to bury our children."

Donahue and fellow URI students Fandia M. Sod Shloul and Geoffrey M. Wilkes rowed out in a small aluminum boat after leaving a gathering of friends near Bonnet Shores. They returned about 15 minutes later and then, at about 3 a.m., they ventured out again, never to return. The discovery of the partially submerged rowboat about 1,200 yards off Bonnet Shores later that morning triggered a massive search-and-rescue operation.

Until yesterday, searchers had found no trace of the students, other than a brown mesh hat and a sandal that were found with the boat.

The discovery of Donahue's body led the Narragansett police and the DEM to launch boats yesterday to search the Point Judith area, about 9 miles south of Bonnet Shores. The DEM also searched with a helicopter, provided by the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, Hall said.

URI President Robert L. Carothers, in a prepared statement, called the discovery of Donahue's body "another sad development in this terrible tragedy."

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the Donahue family and continue to hold all the families and friends of Daniel, Fandia and Geoffrey in our hearts," he said.

Friends have described Donahue, 20, a Glocester resident who was attending URI's College of Environmental and Life Sciences, as the guy everybody wanted to be around, the one who got two-dozen calls on Friday night. His father backed up that portrayal yesterday, saying his oldest son "was just a nice warm kid. He had fun and he enjoyed getting people together."

What his son and his friends did the night they disappeared, he said, is "what college kids do."

"We still don't know what happened and we never will know exactly what happened out there," he said.

Donahue had three younger brothers, his father said, ages 15, 7 and 5.

"We're all hurting," he said. "We miss him and we love him very much."

Carol Hall-Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said an autopsy will determine the cause of death. She was not able to give a time frame for the results.

The search for the other students, also presumed dead, will continue as Coast Guard and DEM boats make routine patrols, said Hall, the DEM police chief.

He stressed that the discovery of a body in one place does not mean the others are nearby.

"There's a tremendous lack of predictability to this stuff. It wouldn't surprise me to find another one way up on the Bay," he said.

redgar@projo.com / (401) 277-7418