CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) - The Coast Guard tentatively identified the
body of a Huntington, N.Y. woman who had been missing since she and
a companion began a kayaking trip two days ago.
The suspected remains of Mary Jagoda, 20, were found off the
coast of Monomoy Island near Cape Cod at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, said
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. James Plath.
The identification was based on physical characteristics
including clothing and a tattoo. The state medical examiner's
office was working to confirm the identity.
The Coast Guard ended its search for her companion - Sarah
Aronoff, 19, of Bethesda, Md. - Tuesday night.
Jagoda, a junior at Brandeis University, was the sole remaining
child of Louis and Anna May Jagoda. Her brother, Jake, 24, an
employee of Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001,
attack on the World Trade Center. Another child died in infancy 20
years ago.
"We looked forward with excitement to what she was going to do
in the future," Anna May Jagoda said of her daughter.
She praised local authorities for the effort that went into the
search, despite its "devastating and horrible" end.
"We had hoped for a while," she said. "We can only thank them
... they did a wonderful job. It just wasn't successful."
Jagoda and her friend Sarah Aronoff, 19, of Bethesda, Md.,
started at a boat launch in Harwichport, paddling a pair of 8-foot
plastic kayaks into foggy conditions on Sunday afternoon. A friend
reported them missing later that day.
The Coast Guard had searched for Aronoff continuously for 50
hours, covering an area of 710 square nautical miles, Petty Officer
Jaimie Knife said.
Aronoff was a student at Franklin & Marshall College in
Lancaster, Pa., who met Jagoda through their boyfriends, according
to her mother, Victoria Aronoff.
The two capsized kayaks were found Monday in an area known as
Pollock Rip Channel, a mile south of Monomoy, an island south of
Chatham that is about eight miles long and several miles wide.
Park rangers searched an abandoned lighthouse on Monomoy on
Monday afternoon but there was no sign of the two women.

Seems to me they brought this upon themselves, taking a chance goign out in such nasty weather lately...

Actually, other than fog, it was a nice day when they went out.

Were the kayakers found in there kayaks, or did ther fall out? Does anyone know?

they found the kayaks overturned and tied together I think... the bodies were not there.

last I heard they only found the one girl and suspended the search for the other

not enough respect for the sea out there... I'm leary of fog even with compass, gps and radio... and that's in a boat w/ a motor. Easy to get disoriented and you never know what someone else is doing.

I saw a 30'er run full speed onto Smith Pt in the fog... obviously they had no clue and weren't being very cautious (actually I heard it).

I'm not going to speak ill of the dead and I feel really bad, but people have to be more careful and make better decisions.

Every year more and more idiotic boaters appear out there.

It wasn't uncommon to hear atleast 5-10 seatow/tow boatus calls on a Saturday or Sunday this summer.

That was unheard of 10 years ago.

Not to down on people who get hurt/lost/drown... but...
Stupid people don't belong in boats.

It's a shame when someone gets killed; it's a bigger shame if others don't learn from it.

It was blowing 15-25 out of the NNE that day ouy here. If they ended up south over to Pollock then the current grabbed 'em. Such a bummer.

Does anyone remember the Kiteboarder that almost left us last Fall over on Nantucket ? Now, kiteboarding (believe it or not) is quite a bit easier to figure out than Windsurfing is and now a lot of "Weather Braindead" individuals have entered the fray.

He was doing his thing out by the end of the West Jetty of Nantucket channel. The current was just finishing an ebb. Wind NW. This Cocky guy (you would die laughing if you met this idiot) was out at dusk in 20-30 kts with a forecast stating "building to 50 + kts by dusk" and he stayed out, had a break down, and had to swim around for a couple of hours against the current (you see he was trying to get back to the beach: south 1/2 mile. Downwind, current East to West @ 1/2 kt) until he figured that the wind was blowing towards the beach he left from. He THEN FIGURED out he should swim DOWNWIND to the beach. By this time the Chopper and Cutter were heading out because his buddies reported him. He was heading right acroos the channel mouth (SE) in a slack current, body surfing the 10'+ waves. Wind now blowing 40-50. He ended up right where he should (albeit 43 hours late) on the beach at Coatue. While they searched for 6 hours all along this beach. He came in behind them because he fought the current for 2-3 hrs. Big and stupid, you see) He then WALKED ALL THE WAY FROM THE EAST JETTY ON COATUE TO THE GUARD HOUSE AT WAUWINET (6-7 miles !) and then criticised them for not seeing him, after dark in his BLACK wetsuit. He went on record saying that the Coast Guard did a rotten job of searching for him. It was friggin' unbelievable.
The channel is 1/4 mile across with an incoming (safe) tide barely moving. I know he was tired but he walked into the scrub for 4 hours. He could have swam a 1/4 mile RIGHT TO THE COAST GUARD STATION.

Too bad it wasn't the Serengeti.
Ah, Mr. Darwin. We were so close to seeing your theory at work.


I am sad about the loss of the two girls. Not arrogance but ignorance.

My heart goes out to their friends and family.

I have been thinking about this incident all week and feel the same in that if nothing we should all learn something from the loss of these girls. A true tradegy. I was in Harwich on Sunday and in the morning it poured buckets of rain with very gusty Northeast winds and it was very dense fog all day. At the time they launched the winds had subsided a great deal and it was not raining but still very dense fog. I was over at Long Pond in Harwich and even there you could not see across to the other side at that time. Had the winds been westerly they probably would have bumped into Monomoy but then it probably would not have been that foggy with westerly winds. Given the current popularity of Kayaks this will probably not be the last incident we hear about but hopefully more will dawn life jackets as a result.