GREENE COUNTY, Pa. — Authorities have identified Eric Rockwell, Racquelle Rockwell and Brian Selvoski as three of the victims of a devastating boating collision on the Monongahela River, ending a multi-day search that brought together divers, emergency crews and specialized recovery teams.
The Greene County Coroner’s Office identified the three on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.
Eric Rockwell, 58, and Racquelle Rockwell, 56, were residents of Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania. Brian Selvoski, 57, lived in Bentleyville.
All three had been missing since Sunday night after a 24-foot recreational vessel collided with a commercial towboat near Rices Landing.
Their recovery brought an end to the search, but it also confirmed the outcome their families and rescuers had feared.
Four of the five people aboard the recreational boat ultimately died following the collision. One man survived after being rescued from the river.
Sunday Night Crash
The collision happened Sunday, August 30, at approximately 9 p.m. on the Monongahela River near Rices Landing in Greene County.
The accident occurred around river mile 70, not far from the Fayette County line.
According to information released during the investigation, the recreational vessel collided with the towboat Megan Ames.
The towboat was traveling upriver while pushing five empty barges when the collision occurred.
The impact caused the 24-foot recreational boat to capsize, throwing all five occupants into the Monongahela River.
The incident immediately became a major water rescue operation.
Two Rescued
Crew members aboard the Megan Ames responded after the collision and launched efforts to help the people in the water.
They rescued a man and woman.
Both were taken for emergency medical treatment.
The woman was transported to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she later died. Her identity had not been publicly released in the initial reports following the recovery of the other victims.
The rescued man was transported to a Pittsburgh-area hospital.
Three other people remained missing after the initial response: Eric Rockwell, Racquelle Rockwell and Brian Selvoski.
Search Expands
What began as an emergency rescue quickly developed into an extensive search of the Monongahela River.
Responders came from multiple counties, with specialized crews brought in to examine the water and shoreline.
The operation included divers and sonar equipment capable of searching areas that could not be effectively examined from the surface.
Helicopters, drones and canine teams also assisted as crews worked through challenging conditions.
Emergency officials eventually moved from rescue operations to recovery efforts as time passed without finding the three missing boaters alive.
The search remained concentrated around the crash area while teams also examined other stretches of the river.
Sonar Finds Two
A breakthrough came Tuesday.
Search teams conducting systematic sonar sweeps identified areas of interest beneath the water, allowing divers to focus their efforts.
Two of the missing boaters—a man and a woman—were recovered from the river Tuesday evening.
Authorities did not immediately publicly identify them while the recovery operation for the remaining missing person continued.
Teams returned to the river Wednesday morning.
The final recovery came after a member of the public reported seeing something in the water near Rices Landing.
Officials subsequently confirmed that the third missing boater had been found.
With that recovery, the dayslong operation concluded.
Victims Identified
Greene County Coroner Martin Yoskovich identified the three recovered victims as Eric Rockwell, 58; Racquelle Rockwell, 56; and Brian Selvoski, 57.
Eric and Racquelle were both from Scenery Hill, an unincorporated community in Washington County.
Selvoski was from Bentleyville, also in Washington County.
The identification transformed what had been a public search for three missing boaters into a period of mourning for their families and communities.
Behind the emergency response and investigative details were three people whose relatives and friends had spent days waiting for answers.
The conclusion of the search ended that uncertainty but brought devastating confirmation.
Four Lives Lost
The full scale of the tragedy became clearer as the search progressed.
Five people had been aboard the recreational vessel.
The Megan Ames crew rescued two of them immediately after the crash. The male survivor was hospitalized, while the rescued woman later died.
Rockwell, Rockwell and Selvoski were the other three occupants.
All were recovered deceased.
That means four of the five people aboard the recreational vessel died following the collision, making the incident one of the region’s most serious recent recreational boating tragedies.
Causes Pending
The Greene County Coroner’s Office has not yet announced final causes or manners of death for Eric Rockwell, Racquelle Rockwell or Brian Selvoski.
Those determinations remain pending as the investigation continues.
While their deaths followed the boating collision and subsequent disappearance in the river, the precise medical findings have not been finalized publicly.
Authorities have therefore stopped short of releasing definitive individual causes of death.
That distinction is important while official examinations remain underway.
Crash Investigation
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is investigating what caused the collision.
Investigators are working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies as they reconstruct what happened on the Monongahela River that Sunday evening.
Several questions remain unanswered publicly, including the precise sequence of events immediately before the recreational vessel and commercial tow met near Rices Landing.
Investigators are expected to examine the vessels, conditions on the river and other available evidence.
Until that work is completed, authorities have not announced a definitive cause of the crash.
Massive Response
The search demonstrated the scale of coordination required after a serious accident on a large river.
Divers worked alongside sonar operators while crews searched from the air and along the shoreline.
Resources came from several Pennsylvania counties, and assistance extended beyond the immediate region.
Murrysville Medic One Dive Team said its personnel conducted systematic sonar grid searches Tuesday and coordinated with other divers and cadaver K-9 teams.
Greene County emergency officials also acknowledged the numerous agencies and specialized personnel who joined the operation.
For those responders, the mission changed from trying to find survivors to bringing three missing people back to their families.
Community Mourns
The tragedy has affected communities on both sides of the Greene and Washington county area.
Eric and Racquelle Rockwell’s deaths are being mourned in Scenery Hill, while Brian Selvoski’s loss is being felt in Bentleyville.
The Rices Landing Volunteer Fire Department expressed sympathy to the victims’ families while recognizing the responders and volunteers who worked through the search.
Those efforts could not produce the outcome everyone hoped for, but they ensured that the missing boaters were eventually recovered.
For their families, the end of the search begins a very different and deeply personal period.
Remembering Three Lives
Eric Rockwell, Racquelle Rockwell and Brian Selvoski became known publicly because of the accident that claimed their lives, but the circumstances of their deaths represent only their final chapter.
To their families and friends, they were people with histories, relationships and memories extending far beyond what happened on the Monongahela River.
The accident has now become the subject of an official investigation, one that may eventually provide clearer answers about how the two vessels collided.
For those closest to the victims, however, the greater loss cannot be explained by an investigative report.
Eric Rockwell was 58. Racquelle Rockwell was 56. Brian Selvoski was 57.
After days of searching, all three have been brought home from the river.
Now their families, friends and communities are left to mourn them while preserving memories of the lives they lived before one tragic Sunday night near Rices Landing.
