MIDDLEBURY — Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR) was called into service last weekend, after a kayaker went missing in Middlebury.

The Associated Press on Monday, April 12, identified the kayaker as Brian Saucier, 26, of Prospect. Saucier was reported missing while kayaking on Long Meadow Pond two days earlier.

Authorities were first alerted to an overturned kayak in the 117-acre pond around 2:45 pm, Saturday, April 10. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Middlebury fire and police fire departments, and NUSAR and the Region 5 Dive Team were among those dispatched to the pond in southern Middlebury.

Saucier’s belongings were found on Saturday, according to DEEP spokesman Will Healey.

NUSAR Chief Michael McCarthy told The Newtown Bee this week that 11 members of the local dive team responded to Middlebury on Saturday.

“We launched our big boat from a gravel bank — a makeshift boat launch — after Middlebury Fire cleared some brush and small trees using a chainsaw,” McCarthy said April 12.

“We sidescanned the area were the kayaker was last seen and we had a good ‘target,’” he added. “We marked it with a buoy just before Middlebury FD Command called it for the night.”

Saturday’s efforts were suspended around 8:50 pm due to darkness. Responders returned Sunday morning at 8 am.

NUSAR was not among those who returned, according to McCarthy. Connecticut State Police divers went on Sunday.

Resources in Search And Rescue’s K-9 team worked the marked area Sunday morning, McCarthy reported. The dogs confirmed the target, he said, “and the CSP diver located and retrieved the victim.”

Naugatuck Ambulance, Naugatuck Fire Police, and Oxford Fire-EMS were also dispatched, as was Middlebury Fire’s Ladies Auxiliary, according to an April 10 post on Middlebury Fire’s Facebook page.

The April 10 call was the second time in as many weekends that a rescue call turned into a recovery call for regional first responders. NUSAR was also among those dispatched on Sunday, April 4, to search for a missing hiker in Lover’s Leap State Park in New Milford.

Divers found the body of 39-year-old Joao Lucas of Danbury in Lake Lillinonah that evening. The state medical examiner’s office ruled the death an accidental drowning.

McCarthy this week said that a team/group debriefing takes place “after every callout NUSAR does.”

At the end of each debrief, he added, all team members are reminded that in-house and outside counseling is available should any member want it.