This story by Jordan Cuddemi was published by the Valley News on Oct. 4 and updated on Oct. 5.
[H]AVERHILL, N.H. — A 79-year-old hunter from Lebanon survived 33 hours stuck in the mud in a swampy area in Haverhill before rescue personnel could locate and free him.
Alexander Samor suffered from hypothermia and fatigue and was transported to Cottage Hospital for evaluation after being freed on Wednesday evening, according to a New Hampshire Fish and Game Department news release.
Fish and Game Lt. James Kneeland, who was one of the officers who located Samor, said in an interview on Thursday that he has never seen anything quite like the situation that unfolded on Wednesday.
“I can’t say I have seen this particular incident in my career,” Kneeland said. “We all had the same thing in mind — that we weren’t probably going to find him alive. … It was very much a surprise, a happy surprise, when we found him.”
On Wednesday morning, Samor’s family members alerted police that the man had left on a hunting trip around 4 a.m. on Tuesday — the first day of waterfowl season — and hadn’t returned. The police then contacted Fish and Game.
No one knew exactly where Samor, an attorney who moved to the Upper Valley from Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 2007, had set out to hunt, but those close to him had a hunch he was hunting somewhere along the Connecticut River, the release said. Officials subsequently found his vehicle parked at Bedell Bridge boat launch in Haverhill.
A crew of five split up as they entered the roughly 80-acre wooded wetland that is surrounded by cornfields; some of them went in a small boat and some of them were on foot.
The water was 2 to 3 feet deep in most parts, but the bottom of the swamp was coated in thick mud, Kneeland said.
“If you kept moving you were all right, but if you stood there too long, we would probably have been in the same predicament (as Samor),” Kneeland said.
While wading through the swamp, one of the rescue officials Kneeland was with spotted Samor, who was submerged neck-deep in the water.
One rescuer was able to hoist Samor up while another man dug the mud away from Samor’s feet to release the suction, freeing him.
Samor could not walk and was disoriented, Kneeland said. Officials brought him to dry land.
“He was soaked to the bone and very chilled,” Kneeland said, adding that after rescuers were able to get him something to eat and drink, he perked up “fairly quickly.”
Officials loaded Samor into a rescue litter and brought him to an awaiting ambulance.
Samor was stuck for 33 hours and weathered a heavy overnight rainfall, the release said.
Messages left for Samor weren’t returned.
Samor told officials he had entered the water, wearing waders, to retrieve a duck he had shot around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, when he started sinking deeper into the mud.
“He became hopelessly stuck, and the more he struggled, the more he sank into the mud,” the release said.
