By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Deputies called it a day late this afternoon and will be reevaluating how to go about finding the 5-year-old who disappeared into the Cispus River on Monday.
“They didn’t make any progress today, as far as finding him,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said early this evening.
The Tacoma boy was riding his motorcycle at the family’s campsite when his parents realized they didn’t hear the motor any longer and then saw it in the water.
Search and rescue personnel have been combing the area south of Randle off Forest Service Road 23 since Monday evening, stopping at nightfall. Today, four deputies and a fish and wildlife officer – swift water rescue team members – conducted their work, putting the fire department and Packwood SAR on standby.
Aust said it would help if the water level would drop, something that has been happening over the past 24 hours.
Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber will be considering conditions and resources and what to do next, he said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
That’s good in theory but there’s too much woody debris floating down. It would be shredded in a week.
The Cispus is fed by snow melt. I’d be surprised if water levels go down much this time of year. Not to be macabre – and maybe they do this already – But stringing gill nets across the river at key points down stream from log jams seems a plausible strategy.
From what I’m reading, the problem is not in finding the boy, but trying to get him out from under a submerged log jam.
It may be impossible to get heavy enough equipment in place to pick the log jam apart, so they may have to wait a while.
How utterly tragic!
Anonymity allows the weak a virtual set of balls. Cowards!! -anonymous
Learn what “I Left”? That accidents happen?
My thoughts and prayers are with the family.
Really, it is not necessary to quote the entire article in order to comment on it. Nor is it necessary for the editor to post the comment without editing out the unnecessary quotes.
Although I appreciate the point Harry Oakes is making, unfortunately, the possibility is very high that the poor boy’s body is trapped under a log or other underwater debris.
And, please, other parents, learn from this tragedy.
The sheriff needs to bring in trained search dogs. They can locate the victim’s remains along the shoreline then the water rescue/recovery team can make the decision on whether they want to risk the recovery or wait.
We’ve done dozens of these cases.
Easy search.
Deputies called it a day late this afternoon and will be reevaluating how to go about finding the 5-year-old who disappeared into the Cispus River on Monday.
“They didn’t make any progress today, as far as finding him,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said early this evening.
The Tacoma boy was riding his motorcycle at the family’s campsite when his parents realized they didn’t hear the motor any longer and then saw it in the water.
Search and rescue personnel have been combing the area south of Randle off Forest Service Road 23 since Monday evening, stopping at nightfall. Today, four deputies and a fish and wildlife officer – swift water rescue team members – conducted their work, putting the fire department and Packwood SAR on standby.
Aust said it would help if the water level would drop, something that has been happening over the past 24 hours.
Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber will be considering conditions and resources and what to do next, he said.