PROVINCETOWN — Carole Madru of Hyannis, whose body was found on the beach in North Truro on Saturday, May 23, had parked her car at Elena Hall’s waterfront parking lot before heading out with her friend to kayak in Provincetown Harbor.
A wound care specialist with the Visiting Nurse Association, Madru, 50, had come to Hall’s home at 401 Commercial St. on Friday to treat Hall’s leg.
Madru asked if she could set off to kayak and leave her car in Hall’s parking area.
“And I said yes,” Hall told the Independent on Monday.
Madru and a friend visiting from France, 51-year-old Marc-Olivier Czarnecki, left in the afternoon. Hall said she believes they were both in the same kayak rather than separate boats.
Madru was reported missing at 11 p.m. by her husband, James, and the U.S. Coast Guard began a search in a 45-foot response boat and Jayhawk helicopter, Coast Guard officials said.
On Saturday at 6:30 a.m., Madru’s body washed up on the beach in front of a home at 542 Shore Road (Route 6A) in Truro. Her kayak landed about 40 feet north of her body, according to Marie Belding, who lives nearby. Madru was not wearing a life jacket when found, but there was one life jacket in the kayak and another near the kayak, Belding said.
A small cross made from twigs and a single red rose marked her landing spot on Monday.
As of Monday night, Czarnecki had not been found. The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for him at 3:40 p.m. Saturday “pending new information,” according to an official announcement. They had searched for a total of 16 hours.
The U.S. Coast Guard tracked Madru’s cellphone, but it was found in a car in Provincetown, according to Petty Officer Briana Carter.
“I feel terrible,” Hall said. “I met her twice. She’s so sweet and so interesting…. That kind of thing never happens in my life, where you know someone and they are so vibrant, and then you hear they are dead the next day…. It makes me realize life is fragile. It teaches you don’t go out on the water at this time of the year.”
Madru’s friends and coworkers have established a GoFundMe campaign to help her family, which includes her husband, son Dylan, and daughter Cassandra.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 217 donors had contributed $17,630.
“I knew Carole as a VNA wound nurse that always brought her A-game,” wrote her coworker Karen Foss on the GoFundMe webpage. “She cared so much for her patients and unselfishly spent hours of her time educating her fellow nurses so we could provide the same care that she so competently did. She was held in very high regard by her nursing co-workers, who will miss her dearly.”
Anyone who has new information regarding this case should call Sector Southeastern New England at 508-457-3211.
