Two teenage brothers’ duck-hunting trip in Oroville, Calif., took a disastrous turn when one brother’s kayak flipped on a stormy lake and the other dove in to help. More than a week later, authorities are still unable to find either boy.
Wesley Cornett, 17, and Andruw Cornett, 19, went missing Dec. 14 during a hunting expedition on the Thermalito Afterbay — a 4,300-acre lake in Butte County with weeds up to 10 feet tall and temperatures that threaten hypothermia, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
On Monday, the Sheriff’s Office announced that all efforts to find the boys beneath the surface using divers and sonar technology had been exhausted. The search-and-recovery mission is now shifting to a “continuous limited search” focused on scouring the surface of the lake, using aircraft, drones, trained dogs, boats and on-shore vehicles, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities first learned the boys were in trouble when Andruw dialed 911 to report that his brother’s kayak had turned over in the lake at 8:33 a.m. on Dec. 14, the Sheriff’s Office said. Dispatch staff advised Andruw to remain in his kayak “multiple times,” but he insisted on diving after his younger brother to attempt to rescue him.
The Oroville region was inundated with a heavy rainstorm that day, causing some 5,000 Butte County residents to lose power, Action News Now reported.
The first Butte County sheriff’s deputy arrived on scene less than 15 minutes after receiving the call from Andruw and was joined shortly thereafter by Cal Fire Water Rescue team members, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Around 9 a.m. the deputy spotted a kayak and, possibly, one of the brothers. About 20 minutes later, a kayak, paddles and waders were found, but the boys were nowhere to be seen.
For the last ten days a massive collaborative search effort has been carried out, using about 280 team members from 21 different agencies.
“Thousands of acres have been searched by boat, by ground and by raft,” said Trevor Skaggs, with the Sheriff Office’s search and rescue team, in a video shared by the Sheriff’s Office.
Divers spent hours being dragged by boats beneath the lake’s murky surface, contending with challenging search conditions.
Weeds up to 10 feet high threatened to tangle them, while stirred-up silt made it impossible to see a distance of more than a few inches in the water, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Divers had to limit the amount of time spent below the surface because the very low temperatures put them at risk of hypothermia.
The thick vegetation and surface swell made it challenging for sonar technology to take clear and accurate images beneath the surface of the lake, which ranges from 3 to 30 feet deep.
Divers found Andruw’s pants last Tuesday, Wesley’s wallet Thursday and Wesley’s jacket and phone Friday.
In a post on GoFundMe, April Clark, the boys’ mother, said Andrew is a hero in her eyes for trying to save Wesley.
“The Sheriff is saying this is now a search and recovery so I will have to also plan to lay my two boys to rest,” she wrote. “This is a freak accident that my family and I are trying to wrap our heads around and we also have 4 girls at home who we still need to care for.”
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