MUHLENBERG TOWNSHIP, PA
Cao
Van Nguyen loved fishing and being around water so much, he bought a small
motor boat and spent hours fixing it up, his oldest daughter said.
"If fishing could be his income he would make that (his
livelihood)," Huong Nguyen, 25, said Tuesday of her father.
"Everybody who knows him knows he loves the water, loves the ocean. It
lets him have serenity, to relax."
She spoke of her father in the present tense, three days after the
56-year-old Muhlenberg Township man died in a boating accident on Blue Marsh Lake.
The preliminary investigation points to overloading of
Nguyen's 12-foot fishing vessel as the cause, a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat
Commission spokesman said Tuesday.
Cao Van Nguyen and two friends launched from the Dry Brooks
boat ramp off Palisades Drive in Bern Township around midnight Saturday aboard
the boat with a small motor, commission spokesman Eric Levis said.
The men along with other fishermen launched their boats
during the opening minutes of walleye season, which began Saturday. The boat began
taking on water because it was carrying too much weight and eventually
capsized, Levis said.
The two friends made it to shore, but Nguyen, who was wearing
hip waders but no life jacket, apparently drowned, investigators said.
Water rescue teams from Berks, Schuylkill and Lehigh counties
searched the lake through the night but couldn't find him. About 13 hours after
the accident, divers recovered Nguyen's body under 8 feet of water - about 20
feet from shore.
An autopsy was performed Sunday by Dr. Neil Hoffman, a
forensic pathologist, in Reading Hospital, but a ruling on the cause of death
is pending the result of microscopic tests, officials at the Berks County
coroner's office said.
Levis said he believed the Fish and Boat Commission still
needed to talk to the two survivors before closing its investigation.
Huong Nguyen said her father was usually skilled as a boater,
but must have overestimated the combined weight of the passengers that day.
"He was always going by the water, always," she
said, sobbing. "When he got that boat, he was so happy. He put a lot of
work into it."
Cao Nguyen was born in Vietnam, where his four siblings
still reside, and worked as a welder for years at local industries including
Dana Corp., Exide and, most recently, Reading Truck Body.
"He was a very hands-on person, a kind of 'Mr.
Fix-it,'" his oldest daughter said. "He worked long hours. He loved
it, and he loved the people he worked with."
An outgoing person, he made friends instantly.
"He had a lot of amazing co-workers who became really,
really close friends of my family. They always saw my dad as an extended family
member."
Huong Nguyen, who lives in Connecticut, had been planning her
wedding celebration in July. But at the moment, paying for the family's
expenses, including her father's funeral services, takes priority.
She and her sisters, Hieu, 21, and Thao, 23, all Muhlenberg
High School graduates, started a GoFundMe page to assist the family.
Although his wife of 25 years, Dung My Thi Vo, is employed as
a temporary factory worker, Nguyen's job was the primary source of income.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than $8,200 had been raised.
Huong said the community's response is a testimony to the
impact of her father.
"We're very grateful for the community
support," she said. "We're just so overwhelmed by the generosity of
the people, not only on the GoFundMe page, but in general with visits, phone
calls and texts to show support."
Source: readingeagle.com
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