Recovery Effort Underway for Boy Who Drowned July 4 Near Mount Rainier

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Rescue crews are in the process of recovering the body of a Port Orchard boy who fell in the Ohanapecosh River July 4.

The 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, was last seen July 4 close to the Cedar Grove Campground near the Mount Rainier National Park entrance off state Route 123. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported that he fell in the river while taking pictures with his friends, and was swept down in waters that were described as swift and cold.

Crews from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, Packwood Search and Rescue, and Olympic Mountain Rescue are trying to recover the boy’s body, but it’s in a difficult spot to reach, according to Lewis County Chief Deputy Stacy Brown.

Kayakers navigating the Ohanapecosh River on Sunday afternoon found the boy’s body downstream from where he fell in, Brown said in a news release. Their discovery came after weeks of searchers trying to find the boy’s body.



Crews began recovery efforts at 10:27 a.m. and as of 1:45 p.m. were still working on recovering the boy’s body from the canyon. Terrain in the area is very steep, and rescue teams took nearly two hours to get to the boy’s body.

The boy fell into the river July 4 while taking pictures, and friends tried to reach out to him with a stick as he became caught in an eddy. The boy was swept downstream even further into a whirlpool.

For more on this story, stay with Chronline.com and pick up a copy of Tuesday’s edition of The Chronicle.