Missing 15-year-old thrown from boat while crabbing presumed dead, Oregon cops say
A teen is presumed dead after he and two others were thrown from a boat while crabbing on an Oregon bay, according to a sheriff’s office.
After the 12-foot long boat capsized “at the mouth of Nestucca Bay and the Pacific Ocean” on Friday, July 7, two of the crabbers, a 17-year-old boy and 40-year-old man, swam to shore, the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office said in a July 9 Facebook post.
The 15-year-old crabber, however, vanished in the water, deputies said.
Multiple agencies responded to search the waters and shoreline, the sheriff’s office said.
On July 9, deputies said the empty boat was found and recovered.
Despite two days of searching, the boy has not been found and is presumed dead, according to deputies.
The boating incident is under investigation, and “the search for the missing boy continues,” the sheriff’s office said.
An investigation showed the 15-year-old was not wearing a lifejacket when the boat overturned, throwing him into the bay, according to deputies.
“These types of incidents happen in the blink of an eye,” Dennis Greiner, a deputy with the sheriff’s office, said in the release. “It is important to be wearing life jackets, or have them readily available immediately.”
In summertime, “our bays and rivers have dangerous currents during tidal events,” deputies said. Such currents are “particularly dangerous” to those who are spending time “near the mouth of a bay or a river.”
“When you need a life jacket, it’s often too late to put one on,” the sheriff’s department said.
Greiner added per Oregon law, children under the age of 12 are required to wear a personal flotation device while on a moving boat on the water. Additionally, all “non-swimmers, regardless of age,” aboard should wear a personal flotation device, according to sheriff officials.
Nestucca Bay is about 60 miles northwest of Salem.
This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Missing 15-year-old thrown from boat while crabbing presumed dead, Oregon cops say."
