Crews find body of 4-year-old in Kings River. He had been missing since Sunday

The body of a 4-year-old boy who had been missing overnight in the Kings River was found Monday morning, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said.

The boy was found 1.75 miles downstream from where he initially went into the water Sunday afternoon along with his 8-year-old sister. The sister’s body was found Sunday about one-fifth of a mile downstream from where they went in.

Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti reported around 11:15 a.m. that Fresno County Fire personnel were on a boat and saw the boy beneath the water, caught against a tree.

The firefighter was deployed into the water and recovered the body.

The boy and his sister went into the water about a mile downstream from Pine Flat Dam near the Raptor Walk Trailhead. According to the sheriff’s office, the siblings were with their mother and an adult friend and were trying to make their way out into the river to climb on a specific rock.

Neither was wearing a life jacket, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office search-and-rescue team found the the body of the girl after less than an hour, but were unable to locate the boy and called off the search Sunday night due to the darkness and fast-moving water.

Crews with the sheriff’s office, along with Cal Fire and the Fresno city and county fire departments, resumed the search Monday morning using boats and a remote controlled vehicle in the water, and drones and a helicopter in the air. The water was too dangerous for search and rescue personal to be put in the river, according to Botti.

After the body was recovered, Fresno County Sheriff’s Sgt. Matthew Hamilton during a media briefing at the scene urged people to stay away from the water.

“Hopefully this is a lesson and people really take warning and really take this seriously that it’s no joke,” he said. “We can’t have people recreating around the water because of how dangerous it is.

“This is a hugely tragic situation that could have been prevented. It’s a very sad situation. Our hearts go out to the family”

This was the first major incident on the river since it was closed to recreational users in March and there continues to be no timeline for reopening. There are numerous closure signs placed along the waterways and the rivers are being patrolled for violations, which start with a minimum fine of $250.

“The river’s closed for a reason; the parks are closed for a reason. It’s because it is extremely dangerous,” Hamilton said. “Just being up here the past couple days, we’re still seeing people trying to come up here and recreate around the water. We are opening the parks so we can use them for our searching and people are just flooding in there and we have to chase them back out.”

In Tulare County, two people have reportedly drowned this month, one in the Tule River and one in the Kaweah River. As of Friday, both were still missing, according to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office.

This story was originally published May 22, 2023 at 10:35 AM.