Double drowning

[james croft]

Six days ago we had a report of two missing 13 year old boys who were overdue from a day of canoeing on a local resevoir. After dark the kids were gone and they had no cell phone service with the phones the kids carried. Aircraft search located their overturned canoe. Also located were a backpack and shoes the boys were wearing. This is a large, shallow resevoir. Max depth around 20 feet with a pretty clean bottom.
Canoe capsized and had a mushroom anchor on about 10 feet of line on it hanging down. It was a windy day and whitecaps were on the lake. We had no good last seen point. Sidescan sonar located a furrow across the bottom where the canoe anchor dragged as the wind blew the canoe across the lake. No PFDs were on the canoe.
Sidescan sonar found a few targets that were checked out with negative results. I believe the boys left the canoe and swam towards shore and this is why sidescan could not locate them in the area where the anchor drag marks were. The water temp would quickly lead to hypothermia. We are now using cadaver dogs or as the press is told "search and rescue dogs". We have now transitioned to a surface search of this 1600 acre lake. Wave conditions make it hard to spot anything until you are right on top of it. I hope this ends soon as it is tough watching the family and friends keeping vigil on the banks.

 

[Greg D.]

Good luck on this one, we had a similar incident a couple years ago with a couple of duck hunters, no last seen point, we had no luck with a side scan or cadaver dogs. it was right here in moses lake which gets no deeper than 30ft, but is anything but clean. We put over 1000 man hours into the search with no luck, they lfloated about 4 months later.

I feel for the family, losing and not having their love found has got to weigh heavy on their minds. I wish you luck on a speedy recovery!

 

[Cacia]

Very sad. How far from where the anchor dragged to the shore? Would they have been wearing heavy boots and clothes? What are PFD's?

 

[Greg D.]

Very sad. How far from where the anchor dragged to the shore? Would they have been wearing heavy boots and clothes? What are PFD's?

Not sure about the other items but PFD stands for Personal Flotation Device (life jacket)

 

[james croft]

Not sure how far the canoe dragged the anchor as the line only went down 10 feet and at points the lake is deeper. We were able to get a heading from the direction of the furrow but sidescan sonar failed to locate bodies in that area. Depending where the canoe capsized they could have been almost 2000 feet from shore from either direction. Shoes were found that they possibly kicked off. The day started out as a nice day but the wind started gusting in the afternoon. I have personal experience paddling that lake in the wind. It gets really rough in a hurry and I have seen many boat capsize out there. The canoe was found near shore. Unfortunately nobody knows exactly where they capsized. I am sure many are holding out hope that they may not be out in the lake or have run away, but all indications are leading to the water. It is a very sad situation. I NEVER will go out in a boat without a PFD. Even if I should end up in the water and die of exposure, my body will be floating. I wear a suspender type inflatable PFD that I never even notice is there. You can get them that you activate by pulling a lanyard or one activated by getting wet.

 

[Gary D.]

Been there many times and I'm sure we will be there again. They never get easier and they are all just as big a mystery waiting to be solved.

They are always sad and upsetting and when will people learn to educate themselves and their kids in water safety. I'll put money on it, I'll bet the kids were just given the canoe to use with no training about water safety and using PFD's.

Sad to say but this is a preventable waste of human recourses and that’s what our jobs are based on.

Good luck with the search and make sure you guys/gals debrief in depth. These are the kind that can ruin a good PSD.

Where is this lake?

Keep us posted

Gary D.

 

[Cacia]

Sounds like an easy lake to "drag"?

 

[james croft]

The lake is Swift Creek Resevoir in Chesterfield Virginia.

 

[Gary D.]

Sounds like an easy lake to "drag"?

That is the word I hate the most. With today’s technology that word should never come up.

It’s just a pet peeve with me. “I” have a hard time, make that a very hard time, sinking treble hooks into a body. In my book it is the least dignified way to recover a body.

In years past that’s all a lot of areas had. But those were in years past. We have moved on and so has technology. So my recommendation is not to rush a drag and borrow the technology.

Gary D.

 

[Gary D.]

The lake is Swift Creek Resevoir in Chesterfield Virginia.

Is this it?
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=14&Z=18&X=82&Y=1295&W=1
Zoom in and out to get a good view of it.

How many acres is it? These shallow suckers can just be a bi-ch.

Gary D.