Sharon Bukulmez and Two Young Grandchildren Found Dead in Submerged Vehicle in Maine
Authorities say Sharon Bukulmez and her two grandchildren were found after a search began when they failed to reach their destination.
The overnight search for Sharon Bukulmez and her two young grandchildren ended with a discovery no family was prepared to receive. On Sunday morning, authorities found the Mount Desert woman, 61, and the children inside a vehicle submerged in Pond Cove in Roque Bluffs, Maine, bringing a desperate effort to locate them to a tragic close. The three had disappeared after leaving a family gathering the previous evening, leaving relatives waiting anxiously for answers.
Bukulmez had last been seen at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, after leaving a family gathering in Jonesboro with her granddaughter, Kinsley Grubb, 5, and grandson, Sawyer Grubb, 3, both of Bar Harbor. The three were traveling toward Machias, but they did not arrive as expected, prompting family members to raise concerns. What had started as an anticipated trip soon became an urgent effort to determine where the family had gone and whether they were safe.
As investigators worked to establish their whereabouts, the search gained a lead from Bukulmez’s cellphone. The Bar Harbor Police Department obtained location information indicating that her phone was in the water near a boat ramp at the end of Schoppee Point Road in Roque Bluffs, directing authorities toward Pond Cove. The phone data became a crucial point in narrowing the search area as authorities continued looking for the missing woman and children during the overnight search.
Maine State Police troopers responded with members of the State Police Dive Team and Maine Marine Patrol after the cellphone information pointed investigators toward the waterfront. At approximately 7 a.m. Sunday, authorities located the vehicle submerged in Pond Cove after following the search information to the area. Bukulmez and both children were found inside, and their bodies were recovered from the water along with the vehicle, ending the search that had continued through the night.
The recovery operation involved several agencies at the scene. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard also assisted after the submerged vehicle was located, according to authorities. Their involvement added further support to an operation that had drawn state and federal resources. For relatives waiting for news, the discovery brought certainty about what had happened, but that certainty arrived with the confirmation that Sharon, Kinsley and Sawyer had died.
The victims were identified as Bukulmez, Kinsley and Sawyer, bringing together one grandmother and two young grandchildren in a devastating family loss. Beyond those confirmed details, authorities have released limited information about the family and the events immediately before the vehicle entered the water. Investigators have not established what caused the vehicle to enter Pond Cove, and officials have not announced a definitive explanation for the deaths. The confirmed facts establish the recovery but not what preceded it or why the vehicle entered the cove.
Following the recovery, the three bodies were transported to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta. Autopsies are being performed to determine the cause and manner of death, as Maine State Police examine the circumstances. Investigators continue working to establish what happened. They are examining evidence surrounding the vehicle’s location in Pond Cove. Until those findings are complete, the cause and manner of death remain undetermined, and the circumstances of the incident remain under investigation by Maine State Police.
For a family that had gathered together Saturday evening, the hours that followed changed everything. Sharon Bukulmez was 61, while Kinsley Grubb was 5 and Sawyer Grubb was 3, leaving loved ones to confront the loss of three family members. Their names remain at the center of a tragedy that began with family and ended in grief.