VICTIMS OF APPARENT FARM ACCIDENT FOUND IN KENT CO.

(KENNEDYVILLE, MD) – A Pennsylvania father and two of his sons, victims of an apparent farm accident, have been found deceased on a Kent County farm where they worked.

The victims have been tentatively identified as Glen W. Nolt, 48, and two of his sons, Kelvin R. Nolt, 18, and Cleason S. Nolt, 14, all of the 900-block of Goshen Mill Road, Peach Bottom, PA. All three victims were pronounced deceased at the scene. Their bodies will be transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsies to determine the cause of death for each.

Just before 8:00 p.m. yesterday, Kent County Sheriff’s Office deputies, as well as fire and rescue personnel, responded to a 911 call from the owner of a large dairy farm in the 12000-block of Vansant Corner Road, Kennedyville, Md. The farm owner reported the three workers were missing. Police learned the victims came to the farm to work each day in the early afternoon. They were last seen by other workers at the farm yesterday between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m.

When the three did not arrive home to milk their dairy cows yesterday evening, family members became concerned and drove to the farm in Kent Co. Persons at the Kent Co. farm found a tractor and the victim’s pickup truck still running and parked beside the two million gallon manure septic pond where the three were believed to have been working.

The Kent County Sheriff’s Office contacted Maryland State Police and requested that State Police criminal investigators assume the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of the three. State Police from the Centreville Barrack and the Kent Bureau of Investigation remain on the scene and are continuing the investigation.

Evidence from the scene indicates the three may have been working with an auger at the manure pit. The victims came to the farm each day and pumped liquid manure through large augers that sprayed the manure onto the ground where it was dried before being spread on other farm fields.

The manure pit is 150 feet by 300 feet and is 20 feet deep, with steep sloping sides. Vacuum trucks from a nearby farm were called in and began removing the manure from the pit as rescue personnel searched for the three. Multiple trucks responded to spread the manure on fields throughout the night.

More than 45 rescue personnel from multiple fire and rescue units responded and worked to search for the victims. The responding volunteer fire departments were from Galena, Kennedyville, Cecilton, Crumpton, Millington, Kent Co. EMS, Port Penn, DE, and Delaware City, DE.

The body of the first victim, believed to be the father, was found submerged in the manure pit about 1:15 a.m. today. The two other victims were found submerged in the pit, one at about 4:00 a.m. and the other at 5:45 a.m. today.

State Police investigators are unsure at this time how all three victims became submerged in the manure pit. Other individuals working on the farm yesterday afternoon have been interviewed, but no witnesses to what happened have been located. At this time there is no evidence of foul play.

The investigation is continuing.