Body thought to be missing teen recovered from Russian River
Rescuers recovered a body late Friday morning as crews searched for a missing child who may have been swept away by the Russian River in Sonoma County.
According to a Facebook post by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, at approximately 10:30 a.m. the teenager was located by an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operated by Napa County Sheriff's Office.
"We were able to recover the body from the water and are working on confirming the identity the teen," the post said.
The Sonoma County Fire District said crews responded Thursday afternoon to a rescue call about two juveniles in the water near Steelhead Beach north of Forestville.
A 15-year-old teen was rescued, but another juvenile -- who initially had been identified as possibly as young as 10 years old -- could not be found, the Fire District said.
The operation was turned over to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department which used patrol units and dive teams at the scene as well as drones.
Department spokesman Deputy Rob Dillon said search operations were suspended at about 9 p.m. Thursday because of darkness. The search resumed Friday morning.
Dillon said conditions are making the search extremely difficult.
"You got a lot of water in the river right now. So the water is moving quickly. It's swift. There is a lot of moving debris from the winter, so you have to be really careful with that," he said. "With that much water and that much turbulence, it kicks up stuff off the bottom which makes visibility really difficult. A lot of times you could be underwater and not be able to see more than a foot in front of your face."
Additional agencies including the Napa County Sheriff's Office's Marine Unit, Sacramento County Sheriff's Office's Marine Unit and Sonoma County Regional Parks assisted with the search.
