For instance, text messages show the 20-year-old from Lake Placid reached out to a friend for help an hour before local rescue personnel were called.

The 11 brief messages show Borden reached out to a friend for help at 4:54 a.m. on May 12. It wasn’t until 5:51 a.m. that the Lake Placid firehouse received a call about two people in distress in the water of Lake Placid, one of whom was Borden. Firefighters in two boats rescued her from the lake, tried CPR but couldn’t find a pulse, and took her by boat to a waiting ambulance that transported her to Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. There, at 11:55 a.m., she was pronounced dead of apparent drowning.

“I need ur help where r u” Borden texted a friend, whom this newspaper has chosen not to identify. “I need to come to u pls hello.”

After the friend texted back, “I couls go over there,” Borden texted, “I would need u to pay for a cab to get me here and then go to my house.”

Saige Borden (Photo provided)

Borden also called the same friend twice during that exchange. The friend missed the second call.

It is unclear why Borden wanted her friend to pick her up.

Her parents, Rob Borden and Suzanne Butler Borden, are focused on these messages as they search for answers about what led up to their daughter’s death, and as they try to piece together what happened that morning. The text messages provide one clue.

State police aren’t currently releasing any information on the Borden case beyond what they have already said, which includes the following: that Saige and two other people were in a canoe that capsized on Lake Placid, that all three fell in the water but the other two were able to get to shore safely and suffered no injuries, that Saige was not wearing a life jacket and that there were no life jackets in the canoe. Multiple requests to confirm or refute other details were denied. State police’s investigation is still ongoing.

“We have nothing further to release on the case at this point,” state police Troop B Public Information Officer Jennifer Fleishman wrote in an email Thursday afternoon.

The Bordens’ questions include why state police have not yet given the names of the other two people who were in the boat with their daughter. The couple named the two, but this newspaper is choosing not to publish those names without confirmation. State police won’t confirm or deny the identities. This newspaper was unable to contact the two people the Bordens named despite multiple calls, voicemails and Facebook messages to them and their family members.

In a call to the Ruisseaumont Way residence where the incident took place, a woman who identified as the grandmother of one of the people the Bordens named said that person is not currently in Lake Placid and will not return due to the shocking nature of the incident. All other calls and messages to these two and their family members have not been returned.

The radio silence has left Saige’s parents in a painful position. Her father continues to put the finishing touches on the new Lobster Reef restaurant on Main Street that he and his late daughter were set to open together this summer. She graduated from the Lake Placid High School in 2015 and had worked at several Lake Placid restaurants.

“It’s just, something’s not right — at all,” Rob said

“We don’t get to see our daughter anymore,” he tearfully added.

“It’s just not right,” Suzanne added.

Also among the parents’ lingering questions is whether alcohol or other drugs played a role in the incident. If alcohol was, the Bordens would like to know who bought it and provided it to their underage daughter, and if police gave breathalyzer tests to the other two other people from the boat.

The Bordens also have questions about whether there is surveillance footage from the Ruisseaumont Way residence where the incident took place and if police will try to access it. The parents also would like to know if police will access the social media accounts, such as Snapchat and Instagram, of those involved in the incident.

The day before the incident, Suzanne said she and Saige attended her son’s track meet before returning home. The mother said Saige then left to help a friend with work at Main Street Pizza before meeting up later that night with friends, including the people who ended up in the canoe with her.

In the days leading up to the incident, Rob said his daughter and a friend spent most of their days working to get the Lobster Reef ready to open. He added that he and his daughter had been working on the project slowly since February before picking up the pace in the two weeks before she died.

“She had so much hope for this,” he said.

“This was hers,” he added. “I built this for Saige.”

They plan to open it anyway, in honor of her.

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Original story

http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2017/05/tragedy-strikes-again/