Search crews are resuming their search Monday morning after suspending the search Sunday morning to give searchers some time to go home and recharge after a difficult weekend.
The whitewater rapids of Ten Mile Creek are a big draw for hundreds of tourists to Kings Canyon National Park every day. But the water is dangerous, especially with the above-normal snowpack melting. The water is cold, fast, and unforgiving.
"A lot of the scenery is beautiful, Mother Nature's beautiful. It's great to look at, but people have a tendency to get too close or go beyond their means or their expertise, they'll get themselves in trouble," said Lt. Robert Salazar with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department.
On Friday the family from New Jersey was hiking a steep path nearby. The father helped his son down to a bunch of rocks, turned around to help someone else, and when he turned back, his son was gone.
Searchers have been out since Friday. The Fresno County Sheriff's helicopter has been flying overhead to get a look inside the canyon. Search teams also climbed down the dangerous paths to search the shores of the creek.
After several hours, they found some of the boy's clothes downstream. Searchers told the boy's father his son's chances of survival are extremely small.
The boy's family has left the search site and is staying in Los Angeles with some friends. Searchers told Action News it took them a month to find the last person to fall into those waters.
