RANGELEY — During Wednesday’s search of Rangeley Lake to find the bodies of three missing snowmobilers, Maine game wardens found a third snowmobile belonging to the trio. Two machines had been located earlier in the week.

The machines were confirmed as those driven by the three missing men, said Cpl. John MacDonald, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service.

The snowmobilers, Kenneth Henderson, 40, of China, Glen Henderson, 43, of Sabattus, and John Spencer, 41, of Litchfield have been missing since Dec. 30 and are presumed to be in the lake, MacDonald said. Wardens believe the men were crossing the lake during white-out conditions and drove into open water.

Earlier this week, MacDonald indicated that if the men were not found Wednesday the search would be called off until spring. However, in a statement Thursday, he said wardens would continue searching until Friday. If the bodies are not found, recovery efforts would resume after spring ice-out.

The search for the men began Jan. 3, when wardens used side-scan sonar towed behind a watercraft and gathered images that indicated two and possibly a third snowmobile.

However, that night, ice formed over the open water and prevented further sonar use, MacDonald said.

On Monday this week, wardens used the sonar image coordinates from that January search and located two of the three snowmobiles using the Maine Warden Service’s underwater remotely operated vehicle.

On Wednesday afternoon, a third snowmobile was located with the UROV.

The UROV is controlled remotely via a 500-foot cable. It has a lake-bottom search area effectiveness of about 400 feet in radius. When the men initially went into the water on Dec. 30, the open water stretched nearly a mile long and one-quarter mile wide.

According to MacDonald, using the UROV to search for the men without specific points identified by sonar will not be possible due to the size of the search area. Water depth ranges between 90 and 130 feet.

In addition, deploying Warden Service divers to search will not be an option due to a combination of near-zero visibility on the lake-bottom, extremely dangerous diving depths and freezing surface temperatures, he said.