After an extensive search effort, on Friday morning searchers located the body of Gerard ‘Jerry’ Boucher, who drowned on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.

By Ronni Newton

Crews were able to resume the search for the body of Gerard “Jerry” Boucher on Friday morning due to improved ice conditions in Bee’s River, Eastham (Massachusetts) Police said in a news release posted on their Facebook page, and he was located at approximately 9:30 a.m. by members of the Barnstable County Fire Department Technical Rescue Team.

Jerry Boucher, 72, and his wife, Kathleen “Kit” Boucher, 71, former longtime West Hartford residents and high school sweethearts who had retired to Eastham, MA in 2008, were walking their dog along Bee’s River on Saturday, and both drowned after falling through the ice. The initial report from the Eastham Police Department indicated that they had first received a report at 9:07 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 of a wet dog who was loose in the First Encounter Beach parking lot and appeared to be in distress.

Kit Boucher’s body was recovered later that morning, police said, and crews continued their search for her husband when ice and tidal conditions permitted.

At 7 a.m. Friday, taking advantage of a mid-morning low tide and ice that had subsided, an extensive search effort involving various agencies, including the Eastham Police and Fire Departments, Barnstable County Technical Rescue and Dive Team, Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office, Massachusetts Department of Fire Service, and Massachusetts State Police Dive Team and K9 Unit, got underway in the Bee’s River area. Crews also used multiple drones to conduct an aerial search of the area.

Members of the Barnstable County Fire Department Technical Rescue Team found Jerry Boucher’s body “in the marsh area approximately half a mile to the northeast of the Bee’s River parking lot,” police said.

“The Eastham Police and Fire Departments continue to express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victims. We would also like to thank our regional partners for their hard work and commitment to locating Mr. Boucher and bring closure to this tragic incident,” they said in a statement.

Friends, family, and former colleagues in West Hartford as well as on Cape Cod learned of the tragedy expressed shock and sadness as they learned of the tragedy. Many in West Hartford knew Kit Boucher as a beloved kindergarten teacher at Bugbee Elementary School, and knew Jerry Boucher from his job at Connecticut Natural Gas and his service to the community. The couple met when they were 15 years old, in a biology class at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, and they married in 1975.

Jerry and Kit Boucher. Kit and Jerry’s Foundation for Good website image

In their obituary, the Bouchers were described as “lifelong best friends and devoted partners since they were teenagers” adding that “[i]n the end they were together, just as they had been since they were teenagers.”

Among their survivors are daughters Amy (Jared Lawson), and Katy (Lyn Vanderhoven), several siblings, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and their dog, Casey.

According to the obituary, visiting hours will be held at St. Joan of Arc Church, Orleans, MA, on Friday, Feb. 27, from 3 to 5 p.m., and on Saturday, Feb. 28, beginning at 9 a.m. with a memorial mass at 11 a.m., followed by a reception in the Church Hall. A private burial will take place in West Hartford at a later date.

“The family invites those who are moved to contribute to Kit & Jerry’s Foundation for Good (www.kitandjerry.org). The foundation was established to ensure their hardworking hearts continue to do good in their community. The first mission will be purchasing beds for a local shelter – the final project Jerry was quietly planning,” the obituary states.

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