The loved ones of a Seattle-spot man considered to have drowned on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River on May 24 has issued a plea to hikers and boaters in the spot to retain an eye out for his overall body and gear.
According to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, dispatchers in Challis were being informed of a fatal whitewater rafting incident involving Robert Gray, 64, of Mill Creek, Washington, by Gray’s family members all around 7 p.m. on Might 24.
The family explained to police that the incident had taken location previously in the working day, all over 2:30 p.m. that afternoon, according to a information release from the sheriff’s office.
Investigation established that Gray was floating the Middle Fork in the vicinity of the Boundary Creek boat launch, northwest of Stanley, when his raft struck a log jam and threw him into the h2o, the sheriff’s office environment mentioned. The drinking water degree was about five toes large and the h2o temperature about 40 levels Fahrenheit.
“Robert Gray, exhausted and cold, could not self-rescue and was carried absent by the swift recent,” the business stated.
The subsequent day—May 25, all-around noon—Custer County Research & Rescue crews situated a physique by helicopter submerged in a log jam down below Boundary Creek that matched Gray’s description but were unable to retrieve the system “due to the rising runoff water and swift currents,” the sheriff’s business office said.
Grey was final witnessed putting on a white helmet and pink daily life jacket in excess of a black wetsuit, according to a GoFundMe marketing campaign established up by Gray’s loved ones on Could 28.
Courtesy Gray relatives Robert Gray
The family members is raising cash to constitution private helicopter surveillance flights simply because regional look for and rescue crews do not have typical entry to a helicopter, according to their campaign. Money will also be utilised to print flyers and preserve Boundary Creek Road—the only accessibility road to recuperate Gray’s body—clear of snow and ice, it mentioned.
“Our best concern is that Dad’s entire body will float farther down the river and come to be lost right before it is retrieved,” the Grey relatives wrote on the GoFundMe web site. “Losing our Dad is a devastating reduction for our household and realizing that his system is even now in the drinking water is even additional traumatizing.”
About 40 miles of the river corridor have been searched so much. A helicopter look for performed on Thursday, June 2, “could not affirm irrespective of whether [Gray’s] system was still in the log jam,” which has since grown much larger, the household said.
“We are also renting housing in the space until finally this kind of time as his physique is recovered, which we are informed could be a number of months from now,” they explained.
Any one who occurs to discover Gray’s body or gear can call the Custer County Sheriff’s Office at 208-879-2232. Pics can be texted to 208-993-9391 and the loved ones can be contacted by e-mail by way of [email protected]
As of Monday afternoon, the campaign experienced raised more than $32,000.