TRURO — A body found on the bayside beach here early Monday, June 8, is thought to be that of Marc-Olivier Czarnecki, 51, who was missing for 17 days following a kayaking accident.
He was last seen setting off from Provincetown in a one-person kayak with Hyannis resident Carole Madru, 50, on the afternoon of May 22.
Her body came ashore at Beach Point in North Truro on May 23. The kayak and two life preservers were also found nearby, according to Marie Belding, who lives near where her body was recovered. Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe stated Tuesday, however, that only one life preserver was found.
The last person to see the pair alive, according to James Madru, Carole’s husband, was Elena Hall of Provincetown. A wound care nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod, Carole had treated Hall, 74, and then used Hall’s waterfront parking lot to launch a single orange-red older-model kayak.
Hall died on June 2.
The kayak that his wife had recently purchased was a single-seater, according to James Madru.
U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Briana Carter said no other kayak has been found. Hall told the Independent she saw only a red kayak that day.
Two adults in a single-seater kayak can be dangerous, said Kimberly Fernandes, owner of Cape Cod Kayak in Bourne.
“I wouldn’t imagine how anyone can really do it unless the kayak had a really wide opening and a high weight capacity,” she said.
James Madru, a real estate agent with Kinlin Grover, said his wife told him she was going to Provincetown to treat a patient on the morning of May 22. She also told him she was going kayaking in Chatham. After he reported her missing that night, the initial bulletins erroneously stated that she had embarked from Chatham.
Carole’s husband said he did not know and had never met Czarnecki; he was unaware that she was meeting him that day. Attempts by the Independent to reach family and friends of Czarnecki, a math professor at the Université de Montpellier in Montpellier, France, have been unsuccessful.
Madru said his experience of grief at his wife’s death was “strange,” coming in waves. The couple have two children, Cassandra, 18, and Dylan, 24. Cassandra graduated from Cape Cod Tech last Thursday.
James Madru also expressed anger that his wife of 25 years would take such a risk that day.
“It was a fool’s errand going out in those conditions,” he said. “Neither of them had any knowledge. I didn’t know Marc, not at all, obviously — I’m just saying anyone with experience would not do that.… They were not wearing life preservers…. I don’t take risks like that myself,” he added.
O’Keefe, the D.A., announced that at approximately 6:19 a.m. on June 8 a body was found at 178 Shore Road in Truro. Identification was still unconfirmed on June 9, but, he stated, “Circumstances suggest that it may be the second kayaker with Carole Madru, whose body was located in the area of 538 Shore Road.”
Foul play is not suspected, O’Keefe stated.
