A cellphone ping retrieved during an urgent overnight search led Maine state troopers directly to a submerged vehicle in Pond Cove early Sunday morning, where a grandmother and her two small grandchildren drowned.
Sharon Bukulmez, 61, was driving her grandchildren, 5-year-old Kinsley Grubb and 3-year-old Sawyer Grubb, back from a family event in Jonesboro around 8:30 p.m. Saturday. They were heading to Machias, a trip that usually takes under twenty minutes along Route 1.
When the trio failed to reach their destination, relatives raised the alarm. Local police departments mobilized quickly, but finding a single car on coastal backroads in the dark proved difficult until investigators pulled location data from Bukulmez’s phone.
The digital trace placed the mobile phone in the ocean near the boat ramp at Schoppee Point Road in Roque Bluffs. State police, dive teams, and marine patrol units redirected all resources to the dead-end coastal road before sunrise.
At approximately 7:00 a.m. Sunday, divers spotted the car fully submerged in Pond Cove. Rescue workers pulled the vehicle from the water and found Bukulmez, Kinsley, and Sawyer inside.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard provided support as state authorities recovered the vehicle and cleared the scene. Investigators shipped all three bodies to Augusta, where state medical examiners will perform autopsies.
Maine State Police say the circumstances around the crash remain under active investigation. Police have not released details on weather conditions or potential vehicle malfunction at the time of the incident.
The boat ramp at Schoppee Point Road has a history of danger after dark. In July 2013, two women drowned at the very same ramp when their vehicle rolled off the asphalt into the water during heavy coastal fog.
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