Both the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office and Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office have confirmed a body found June 29 floating in Lake Anna is that of a woman last seen May 11 renting a boat from a Spotsylvania business around 12:30 pm.
On Sunday, May 12, a report was taken by the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office of an abandoned boat stuck on a sandbar located near Bear Castle Drive, Bumpass. The boat matched the description of the one rented by Maya Oliva Smith the previous day.
Several personal belongings of Smith were located on the boat and there were no indications of foul play according to the LCSD.
Louisa County Marine units, with the assistance of Louisa County Fire & EMS and Spotsylvania Fire & EMS used boats with sonar to scan the water where the boat was located with negative results.
Subsequent searches involving Federal assests (dive teams with cameras) in the following days also provided negative results.
Based on body float data accounting for water temperature, it should have taken 3-7 days for Smith’s body to be recovered unless it was weighed down.
At approximately 2:15 pm on June 29 the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) received information about a body that had been located floating in the waters of Spotsylvania County, out in the main part of Lake Anna. At the request of Spotsylvania, LCSO Deputies, detectives, and other resources responded, and arrived just after the body was removed from the water.
During initial investigation it was determined to be the body of a female. The deceased individual is was transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy and was indentified as Smith.
