Maine town manager dies saving son, 4, after both fall through frozen pond

The manager of a town in Maine died after saving his 4-year-old son when both fell through a frozen pond while out on a walk Friday, police said.

Kevin Howell, 51, was walking with his son around 6:30 a.m. when they broke through Etna Pond, about 1/3 of a mile from their Carmel home, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

Howell managed to get his son out of the water and told him to go get his mother, the sheriff’s office said. After the boy ran home and told his mother what happened, she called 911, grabbed an anchor and rope and ran to the pond to help her husband.

She tied the rope on the shore but also fell through the ice, according to the sheriff’s office. A detective in the area who had heard the 911 call responded and crawled across the “treacherous” ice, holding on to the rope as he went, and pulled the woman out.

However, there was no trace of Howell, the sheriff’s office said. Members of the Maine Warden Service and the Carmel Fire Department arrived, but they also couldn’t find Howell.

Two Maine Warden Service divers went into the pond around 1:40 p.m. Friday and found Howell’s body a little before 2 p.m., according to the sheriff’s office.

Carmel is about 93 miles northeast of Lewiston. Howell was the town manager there, the Maine Warden Service told NBC affiliate News Center Maine. His office is responsible for oversight and management of town departments, according to Carmel's website.

Town representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday evening.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com