Warwick woman and boyfriend drown in Kanawaukee Lake

Harriman — “It is a tragedy. A complete tragedy. Two young lives snuffed out.” Those were the comments of senior investigator John VanDerMolen of the New York State Police regarding the drowning deaths of a Warwick woman and her boyfriend, Saturday morning in Harriman State Park. Brittany Duggan, 19, and Matthew LaFrancois, 23, of West Haverstraw, had left her Warwick home at around 3 a.m. Saturday and were heading to West Haverstraw when the car he was driving went off the road, sailed over some large boulders, hit a small bridge and landed on its roof in Lake Kanawaukee Lake in Harriman State Park. A bicyclist noticed the 1994 Ford Bronco’s wheels sticking out of the water, which was about five- to six-feet deep, at about 8:30 a.m. and reported what he saw to the park police later that morning. VanDerMolen said the road the couple were traveling on, Route 106, is narrow and winding. Saturday morning, the road was slick from the rain and there is no lights. There are lakes on both sides of the road, he said, but noted that the section of road where the accident occurred was straight. Coroner Kevin Quigley pronounced the two young people dead at the scene Saturday morning. VanDerMolen said an autopsy, which was performed at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, showed that the cause of death was drowning. There were no serious injuries to either of the bodies, he added, and no indication of seat belt usage. “Both victims drowned,” he said. “Whether they were knocked unconscious and drowned or were disoriented in the dark water, we don’t know.” It will take four to six weeks for toxicology reports to come back as well as an accident reconstruction report. Duggan attended Warwick Valley High School from 2001 to 2005 and was a member of St. Stephen’s Church in Warwick.