Search for Missing Conn. Wedding Photographer Curtailed
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ABC News(NEW MILFORD, Conn.) — Police have scaled back the search for a popular wedding photographer who went missing in Connecticut last week as family and fellow photographers try to keep hope alive.
Eric Langlois, 33, of New Milford, Conn., was last seen June 11, by his wife, Amber, when she dropped him off at Lovers Leap State Park in New Milford to retrieve his mountain bike that had fallen into the water when he biked there the day before.
Hours after Amber, pregnant with the couple’s third child, left her husband at the state park, police received a 911 call from a woman who’d been hiking in the park and heard a man call for help.
“We’re not sure if he ever found his bike, [or] if he was trying to pull his bike up and fell in,” said Amber, who described her husband as having a “badly scraped left shoulder” and cracked helmet after his initial crash.
“Looking back, he did seem a little unusual,” she said. “My sister noted his pupils were dilated and his balance was a little off.”
Langlois’ family, friends and fellow photographers joined with state and local police to launch an all-out search, combing the park and nearby Lake Lillinonah off the Housatonic River.
“It was overwhelming the amount of people that showed up, brought flashlights, brought water, whatever they could do to help find Eric,” Amber Langlois said.
In a statement Sunday evening, the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said it was scaling back the search to conduct only periodic sweeps of the lake and surrounding area and follow up on any new leads.
“Everyone at DEEP understands that this is an emotional and sad time for friends, family and colleagues of Eric Langlois. Our hearts go out to them,” the statement read, according to the New Haven Register.
Before the statement was released, Amber Langlois said she was not giving up hope of finding her husband.
“I’m just trying to take [it] day by day, and being strong for my kids is obviously going to keep me together,” she said. “I have to for them. And that’s what he would want me to do.”
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