UPDATE: Missing boater identified, recovery mission continues
Timmy Bowden
A family friend has identified the teenage boy missing after the boat he was riding in Saturday night sank on the Snake River as 14-year-old Timmy Bowden.
Yesterrday, the search for Bowden was terminated at 4 p.m. after multiple agencies were unable to locate the missing boater.
However, this morning, a recovery mission began in the area of Hood Park in Burbank, according to Walla Walla County Sheriff John Turner.
Just after midnight Sunday, deputies responded to the Hood Park boat launch area after receiving a call that a boat had sunk while night fishing on the Snake River late Saturday night.
Five people were on the boat. All of them made it to shore except for the teenage boy, who has not been identified.
Turner described the situation as a tragic accident and says there is no criminal investigation
The search consisted of personnel from the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Columbia Basin Dive Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard is currently underway.
Turner says the search area strecthes from the train trestle near Sacajawea State Park to the southwest to the U.S. 12/Snake River Bridge to the northeast.
Franklin County also deployed an underwater robot to aid in locating the teenage boy.
Around 2 p.m. Sunday, divers from Columbia Basin Dive Rescue located the unoccupied boat at a depth of 20 to 40 feet below the surface.