Vigil Held For Boy Believed Drowned In Yosemite Tragedy
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — A prayer vigil was held Saturday for 6-year-old Jacob Adams, believed drowned Wednesday when he and his 10-year-old step brother fell into the rapids of the Merced River at Yosemite National Park.
Jacob's body has not been recovered. His brother Andy's body was recovered about 150 yards from where the boys fell in.
Saturday, friends and family gathered to remember the boys and pray for their mother. Sharlene Hargis was injured trying to save her sons.
Hours before the vigil was to begin, ushers were already preparing the church where Hargis, her son and step-son and her husband of two weeks attended.
Joy Benedict, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, was there for the sad preparation at the Calvary Chapel Church in Anaheim.
She spoke to usher Patrick Selitrennikoff, "We found out about the news early in the week. My wife was on Facebook and it went thru a prayer chain. We immediately got down on our knees and prayed."
Pray is what Selitrennikoff and the congregation planned on Saturday evening. "We're here for the family and we're here for them."
Selitrennikoff's wife taught Bible study to Jacob Adams. He praised the boys mother, and an older brother, for jumping in trying to save them. "How brave she was and the other son to jump in as well. How alert they were and quick."
At the special prayer vigil, attended by hundreds, Hargis' grandmother, Laura Bryan, told CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Art Barron that her granddaughter is still in pain, physical and emotional. "She's still not doing well, she still has a broken foot and broken vertebraes in her back."
Bryan is coming to grips with the loss of her great-grandson. "This has been terrible, such a loss. I just wish they would find him."
