Man drowns in Thompsons Lake

The Enterprise — Noah Zweifel

Thompsons Lake

BERNE — A drowning victim was pulled from Thompsons Lake on Aug. 11 by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police, Sheriff Craig Apple wrote on social media last week. 

Apple said the victim, 58-year-old Mahbeer Magasa, of Guyana, was in around 40 feet of water and that attempts to resuscitate him failed. An autopsy confirmed that he died of asphyxiation, Apple said.

It’s the second drowning death at Thompsons Lake in just over two months. A 47-year-old woman died there on June 4 when a boat she was in tipped over.

Thompsons Lake campground is part of the John Boyd Thacher State Park. A State Police spokeswoman referred Enterprise questions to the county sheriff’s office, which did not respond.

More Hilltowns News

  • The Berne Town Board will hold its annual reorganizational meeting on March 5, followed by a regular town board meeting on March 12. These are the first meetings the town board will have had since July. 

  • Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Superintendent Bonnie Kane filled the board of education in on various state proposals — from the retention of “hold-harmless” state aid to a possible ban on phones in schools — to lay out the work that will need to be done in the coming months, during the state and district budget cycles. 

  • Ambulances transported four people to Albany Medical Center, including one in critical condition, after a traffic accident near the intersection of Township Road and Lewis Road in Knox.

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