I do not know this boy or his family but this is something that is happening close to me. 11-year-old boy missing in Sequoia National Forest
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, California.
Rescue crews in California's Sequoia National Park are looking for a boy from New Jersey who disappeared while hiking with his family.
Searchers say there are slide marks leading to the river where the 11-year-old was last seen on Saturday.
His father had helped him down a steep hill, then went back to help other family members.
When he returned, the boy was gone.
Rescue teams say the water is dangerous this time of year because of run-off from the melting snow pack.
I heard they have now found some of his clothes but still no sign of him. It looks like the family was here on vacation. I really hope he did not hit the river because they are pretty powerful specially this time of year
Subject: Re: Missing Boy Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:34 am
I don't know his name. Here is a video on it:
The boy disappeared Friday night and Saturday, searchers found signs that he fell into a creek.
The boy's family came all the way from New Jersey for the scenery at the park.
The victim's father was still there Saturday watching a search that's now in its 25th hour.
The whitewater rapids of ten mile creek are a big draw for hundreds of tourists to Kings Canyon National Park every day.
But accessing the water is dangerous, and for a family from New Jersey, the trip took a tragic turn.
This is the path the family took. It's steep - 50 feet, almost straight down - and it leads to a bunch of rocks.
When they got to those rocks, the father helped his son down, turned around to help someone else, and when he turned back around, his son was gone.
"A lot of the scenery is beautiful, Mother Nature's beautiful. It's great to look at, but people have a tendency to get too close or go beyond their means or their expertise, they'll get themselves in trouble," Lt. Robert Salazar said.
The Fresno County Sheriff's helicopter came down to eye level to get a look inside the canyon.
Search teams also climbed down the dangerous paths to search the shores of the creek.
After several hours, they turned up some evidence downstream.
"It appears that we may have found some clothing articles that the dad has identified to confirm it does belong to his son," Lt. Salazar said.
The 11-year-old boy's father sat along the road, 50 feet above the creek, with his head slumped over in his hands.
Searchers told him, with the water so high, fast, and cold, his son's chances of survival are extremely small.
The search will continue until nightfall and then resume Sunday.
But searchers tell Action News it took them a month to find the last person to fall into these waters.
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I heard that they were hiking but got OFF the path to take a closer look at the river. The waters are powerful. When I've gone, at some points you have to scream in order for people to hear you. People like living dangerously sometimes and try to get close to things they shouldn't. I know that when I was around 18, and we would have picnics at these places... my cousins, friends and I would jump from this rock, down to a waterfall and as soon as you hit the water, you had to QUICKY AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH swim to the side so the power of the waterfall could not keep you under. Ugh... we were crazy and stupid for doing that!!! Thankfully we all made it safely.
It's just so sad that a wonderful trip turned into a nightmare
The Fresno County Sheriff's Office says a search and rescue team has found the body believed to be that of the missing 11-year-old boy in Kings Canyon National Park.
At around 2 p.m. Monday, rescuers located the body in the Ten Mile Creek about 400 feet downstream from where they think the boy fell in Friday night.
Crews are now working to recover the body from the creek.
Prayers going out to his family. What a tragedy...