ROQUE BLUFFS — The town of Roque Bluffs is reeling after a Mount Desert woman and her two young grandchildren were found dead in a submerged vehicle in Pond Cove Sunday morning.  

Sharon Bukulmez, 61, was driving Kinsley Grubb, 5 and Sawyer Grubb, 3, from Jonesboro to Machias on Saturday night. Peter Grubb, the father of the children and Bukulmez’s son, told WMTW that the trio was headed home from his wedding.

According to Maine State Police, when Bukulmez and her grandchildren didn’t arrive as expected Saturday night, the Bar Harbor Police Department found Bukulmez’s location via her cellphone, which indicated she was in the water off a boat ramp at the end of Schoppee Point Road.

Authorities, including the Maine State Police Dive Team and Maine Marine Patrol, located the bodies of Bukulmez and the children in Pond Cove around 7 a.m. on Sunday, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine State Police. Their bodies were transported to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta to determine the cause and manner of death.

Moss said police don’t think the deaths are suspicious, but haven’t yet released any additional details about the manner of death or how the car got into the water. The investigation is ongoing. 

A similar incident happened in 2013, when two hikers drove their minivan down the same boat ramp and died. The Bar Harbor Story reported that following this incident, six warning signs were installed near the boat ramp, and the steep decline from the road to the water was fixed.  

In a social media post, state Rep. Tiffany Strout (R-Harrington) said she’s willing to work with town and state officials to make the signage near the boat ramp more visible.

“I am so heart broken for the outcome of yesterday’s search in Roque Bluffs,” Strout said. “Even though the ramp is marked, I am willing to work with the town or State DOT if needed, to make the signage more visible to better alert those driving in the area that the ramp leads to the water.”

Owen Moody, the Roque Bluffs select board chair, told News Center Maine that the town is planning to put a gate up on the boat ramp when it’s not in use. Harbor Master Prentiss Harmon told News Center the town could put up some flashing lights to indicate that the road ends.  

Spectrum News has reached out to the Roque Bluffs select board and harbor master for comment.

Several fundraisers have been set up to support the Grubb family. One GoFundMe, set up by Bo Greene of Bar Harbor, has raised nearly $82,000 for the family as of 1 p.m. on Wednesday.  

“Kinsley and Sawyer Grubb lit up the lives of their parents, Peter and Becca, their grandparents, their aunts and uncles and cousins, their teachers, and their friends,” Greene said. “Pete and Becca are incredibly hard working parents, trying to create the best life for their young family. The profound devastation they must be feeling is nothing that we can understand or make sense of and the collective hearts of all of us are breaking for them.”

She added that Bukulmez was the kindest person she’s known and that “her selflessness shined in so many ways.” Bukulmez worked at MDI Hospital, according to Greene.

In a social media post, Jennifer Sargent, the owner of a Bar Harbor childcare center, has set up a basketball scholarship in the name of Sawyer Grubb, whom she said she bonded with over basketball. She said her business had been the family’s chosen childcare center for three years. Sargent said the funds will go toward basketball clinics and summer camps at The Forge Training Center in Ellsworth. The Sawyer Grubb Fund is under her name at The First National Bank.

“Sawyer was my buddy,” Sargent wrote. “We bonded over basketball and my challenging him to a shooting duel was a common occurrence. At the tender age of 3, he’d still smoke me. I referred to him at the next Jordan, and I’m heartbroken his dreams were cut short.”