Wareham and State Police are investigating the death of a 57-year-old woman in a Rose Point home following an 8:15 Friday morning report of a distressed man in a canoe in the Weweantic River or a tributary just north of Route 6.

A four-paragraph press release issued by Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 27, did not characterize the death as a murder, but said “police do not believe this was a random act of violence.”

The deceased woman’s name was not released. The 3 Woodbridge Ave. home in which the body was found is listed as being owned by a Mardiette Deboyes.

Converging on Woodbridge Road and nearby Canedy Street shortly after 8:30 a.m., police had two properties cordoned off with crime scene tape by mid-afternoon. Wareham Chief John Walcek said officers were still on the scene well after dark.

As described by the district attorney’s office, Wareham police were called to a waterway by Route 6 in Wareham for a reported distressed man in a canoe at 8:15 a.m. The 54-year-old man was taken to Tobey Hospital for treatment of what were described as non-life-threatening injuries. 

The district attorney’s office did not name the man or say whether he was taken into custody.

Shortly thereafter, according to Rose Point residents, Wareham and Marion Police cruisers and an ambulance pulled into Woodbridge Avenue, a quiet dirt road in Rose Point, a cluster of once primarily seasonal homes on a point of land jutting into the Weweantic River just north of Route 6.

According to the district attorney’s office, officers “found a 57-year-old female unresponsive” at 3 Woodbridge Ave. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and State Police were called in to help with the investigation.

At the scene on Friday afternoon, neighbors were at a loss, including one woman who lived directly in front of one of two homes surrounded with police tape.

“It’s so quiet down here. We’re lucky to get five or six cars a day,” said another neighbor from down the street.

“We have very little crime down here, since most people can’t find the place,” Bern Budd said.

Budd and his wife were paddling on the water at about 10:30 Friday morning, and said they weren’t sure whether the homes in question were summer homes or occupied year round.

They noted that the water near the homes was so shallow that if you waited a few hours, you could walk right out at low tide.

Yet a fourth neighbor said that police asked him whether he or his family saw a man in a canoe at about 5:30 or 6 a.m., or whether they saw anything on the shore or floating in the water.

Among the many unanswered questions is the relationship between the man in the canoe and the dead woman. The district attorney’s press release did not explain how the canoe incident led police to 3 Woodbridge Ave.