The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) is leading the investigation of a twovessel collision May 20 that led to two fatalities and two injuries on False River.

The accident involved a near head-on collision between a 20- foot vessel and a bass boat, LDWF spokesman Adam Elnck said.

The collision took the lives of Shea Mouton, 31, of Fordoche, and Dr. Kenneth St. Romain Jr., 45.

Mouton was recovered from False River after the incident.

Mouton and St. Romain both worked in fields that involved helping others. Mouton was a volunteer firefighter for the St. Landry Parish Fire Department, while St. Romain operated a family dentistry practice in Baton Rouge and Livonia.

The accident occurred around 10:15 p.m. around the 7400 block of False River Road (on the Island side), Pointe Coupee Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux said.

Crews from the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff’s Office and Pointe Coupee Fire Protection District 3 searched for St. Romain’s body until sundown Saturday.

Cadaver dogs, an East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office helicopter, Pointe Coupee Fire District 3’s thermal drone and divers from Pointe Coupee Parish Fire District’s 3, 4 and 5 and a PCPSO volunteer search and rescue team helped in the search. West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Ascension and West Feliciana also assisted in the search.

They resumed the search around sunrise Sunday and recovered St. Romain’s body around 8:40 a.m., 34 hours after the collision. The crew recovered his body about 60 yards from the scene of the accident.

A volunteer’s boat used an advanced sonar system – to locate St. Romain’s body.

“We’re thankful we were able to find the body quickly with our skilled teams, and hopefully give family a sense of closure,” Thibodeaux said. “This was a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers go out to both families.”

Each boat had one other occupant. Both were ejected into the water.

They were picked up by a Baton Rouge man who has a camp on The Island side of False River.

Jeffery Sommers, 59, said his son Daniel, 32, heard the crash while standing outside on the front porch.

“Daniel heard a loud boom,” Jeffery Sommers said.

“He came in and thought maybe somebody’s boat motor had blown up, and then we both walked outside and heard screams for help.”

They did not have a boat at the site, but the man who was building his pier left his work party barge at the site – with the keys in the ignition.

The two men went out on the rescue in almost complete darkness.

“We only had cellphone lights,” he said. “We thought at that moment maybe the boat had broken down.

“As we got closer, we realized they were overboard, just treading water.”

The father and son soon realized that there had been one survivor from each boat.

“We grabbed the bass boat, which was still afloat, but the other boat was spinning in circles … that was the boat carrying Mouton,” Jeffery Somers said.

“By the time they got them back to the pier, emergency personnel had arrived to bring them to the hospital.

“It was pitch black and it all happened so fast, but when we got them back to our camp, the District 3 Fire Department emergency medical people were ready to take care of them,” he said. “It was horrific … one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

He said he and his son did not consider their efforts befitting of the term “Good Samaritans.”

“I’m sure most people would’ve done what my son and I did,” Sommers said. “When you hear people hollering for help, you go help them.”

Resident Chuck Ballard, who lives on The Island, also assisted in the rescues, Thibodeaux said.

The bodies of Mouton and St. Romain were turned over to the Pointe Coupee Parish Coroner’s Office to determine an official cause of death.

The collision was the first since July 2021 when a party barge collided with an innertube, which left three children injured.

“Even amid the strong influx of boat traffic along False River, accidents do not occur very often along the waterway, Thibodeaux said.

“One is too many,” he said.