Drowning victim identified

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An 18-year-old Spotsylvania man drowned late Tuesday while playing in the Rappahannock River with some friends, police said.

Brandon Wichert was found shortly after midnight Wednesday off Riverside Drive in Fredericksburg by divers from the Fredericksburg Fire Department.

Rescue workers had been looking for Wichert for more than two hours by then.

According to Kennedy, Wichert and about five other friends were jumping off a rock on the Fredericksburg side of the river about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday.

One friend said Wichert had stayed on the rock while others were jumping in, but at some point they noticed he was no longer there.

The friends looked along the shore line and main road a short time before calling 911.

The drowning was the 89th to occur in the Rappahannock since 1985. The last one occurred Nov. 12 of last year, when a King and Queen County man drowned in the river near Port Royal.

Rescue workers from Stafford, Fredericksburg and the state police began a search and a city diver found the body in about eight feet of water in the same area where Wichert had last been seen by his friends.

A state police helicopter had been called to assist in the search, but was cancelled because the body was found before its arrival, authorities said.

–Keith Epps

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