Officials found a woman’s body in a Union pond on Thursday while searching for a missing paddleboarder and are investigating the death as suspicious.

Union fire Chief Jesse Thompson said his department was dispatched to Crawford Pond about 12:30 a.m. Thursday to search for a woman who had not returned from a paddleboarding trip. Fire department staff launched a boat to conduct the search from Mic Mac Cove Family Campground on the north side of the pond and notified other agencies, including the Maine Warden Service and Maine State Police.

Maine game wardens joined the search just after 1 a.m., Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said Thursday night.

Searchers located a body a few hours later, Thompson said. Moss confirmed that the decedent was a woman.

Moss said game wardens requested help from the state police Major Crimes Unit “based on the circumstances surrounding the discovery.” State police then began an investigation, which Moss described as “active and ongoing,” into the death.

The body of the woman, whose name was not released, was taken to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta for an autopsy.