Wichita crews continue search Saturday for boy in creek

The intensive search for an 11-year-old Wichita boy who fell into Gypsum Creek on Friday continued without success Saturday evening.

Crews scoured the creek while divers searched shoulder-to-shoulder as planes flew above the site looking for signs of the boy, who was swept away by currents Friday evening, disappearing from his three friends’ sight as they tried to cross a stretch of the creek.

Heavy rains Friday created treacherous conditions of high, fast-moving water.

Searches went from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Friday and then midnight to 1 a.m. Saturday. They resumed around 7 a.m. Saturday. The boy’s family waited near the site of his disappearance throughout most of the search.

Saturday’s hot but clear weather offered better search conditions, but rain is forecast for Sunday and through the rest of next week, which will complicate search efforts.

But with 8- to 12-mph currents Friday, it’s possible the boy could be in the Arkansas River.

“At this point, anything’s possible,” said Scott Brown, battalion chief of the Wichita Fire Department.

However, crews focused most of Saturday’s search on a quarter-mile stretch near the spot where the 11-year-old entered the water.

Brown described the search as looking for “a needle in a haystack.” Divers slowly walked through the creek, using poles with metal forks at the bottom to flip rocks, debris or other materials in the water, in hopes of finding the boy.

As of 5:30 p.m. Saturday, crews in the area around Jardine Middle School, east of Hillside and south of Pawnee, had found nothing but rocks, rebar, shopping carts, bicycles and old tires, according to Brown.

“You name it, it’s in there,” he said. “They’re encountering water that’s anywhere from 3 feet to 12 feet deep.”

Friday’s events

The boy went missing Friday shortly before 7:30 p.m., when he and three other boys tried to cross the water near a footbridge just north of Jardine Middle School, 3550 E. Ross.

The water’s current swept away the 11-year-old. His friends attempted to grab him but couldn’t keep him from flowing downstream.

The boys then ran to the Lord’s Diner in the 2800 block of South Hillside to report what had happened and described the 11-year-old as wearing jeans and no shirt, Brown said.

On Friday, Wichita Fire Battalion Chief John Turner said 30 to 40 fire crews and 30 police officers responded to the scene.

Two rescue boats searched the creek, which feeds into the Arkansas River around 31st Street South.

The fire department tried to use thermal imaging technology to find heat that would indicate a body, but the cold water, Turner said, hampered the thermal imaging capabilities.

Crews started considering the search a body recovery operation by Friday evening.

Saturday’s events

A team of about 10 divers was wading through the water flipping rocks and debris and pulling up shrubs stuck to the creek bed on Saturday.

Every two hours, the divers have to be rotated so they can heat up and rehydrate, Brown said. The cold creek water, offered conflicting challenges for searchers.

“We feel warm up here, but the (divers), they’ve been in that water now for over two hours,” Brown said. “We’ve got to make sure they don’t suffer any hypothermia, because that water is cold.”

Police and firefighters talked with the three boys who were with the 11-year-old when he was swept under the current Friday, Brown said.

The boys walked firefighters from where the boy fell to Hillside – about a quarter-mile stretch of the creek.

Three rescue dogs combed the shoreline, and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office flew a plane above on Saturday.

“We’re going to hit it hard until dark, and at dark we’re going to decide how we’re going to proceed through the night,” Brown said.

Brown said he is still hopeful the boy made it out of the creek on his own.

“What I’m hoping and what everybody’s hoping is that he just shows up at home,” Brown said. “As far as if he’s found in the water, at this point, it’s just a body recovery. There’s not a chance he could have survived in the water that long. There’s always hope.”

Late Saturday afternoon, divers and search crews in rafts spent much of the day scouring about a quarter-mile stretch of the creek from Hillside to I-135.

After largely exhausting searches west of Hillside, Brown said he expects searchers would turn again to the quarter-mile stretch east of Hillside where the boy first went in the water.

Brown said he didn’t yet know details about searches Sunday and beyond.

“We’ll think about tomorrow later,” he said. “Right now, (we’re) going to do everything we can to find him today,” he said.

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Wichita crews continue search Saturday for boy in creek."