Creek Outflow Scanned for Missing Teen

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Created on Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:58

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UPDATE: Sitka Police Department at 3:30 p.m. today said that the Sitka Fire Department dive team had recovered the body of 16-year-old David Jackson of Sitka. He was recovered in the outflow of Sawmill Creek around 2 p.m.

BY SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka fire and police departments continued their search for a 16-year-old Sitka boy missing since Saturday night when the vehicle he was in went off the side of Blue Lake Road, and down the mountainside into Sawmill Creek.
The search effort, now entering its fifth day, has included Sitka Search and Rescue and dozens of volunteer searchers, as well as search dogs, police officers, Alaska State Troopers, the Coast Guard and a team from Juneau Mountain Rescue.
The missing teen was one of four occupants of a 2008 Hyundai that ran off the side of the gravel Blue Lake Road Saturday night. Three, ages 16, 18 and 19, were found near the crash site the night of the accident and taken to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. One was later medevacked to another hospital.

Sitka Search and Rescue’s Karen Royce stands with her search dog, Rio, as S.J. Downey, also with Sitka Search and Rescue, talks with Forest Service workers and a member of Juneau Mountain Rescue, who were scouting an area to launch a drone today off the Blue Lake Road. Today six search dogs were part of the effort to find the teen missing since Saturday’s car accident. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

Sitka Fire Chief Craig Warren was not available today but on Tuesday said that day’s searching involved the Fire Department search and rescue team with two search dogs and handlers, and the emergency response vessel.
Search dog teams Tuesday covered the Blue Lake Road area for any signs that the missing boy might have made it back to the road, and emergency response boat swept the outflow of Sawmill Creek into Silver Bay using side-scan sonar.
Police said the first call reporting the accident was made by one of the survivors at 10:15 p.m. Saturday, from a location on Sawmill Creek Road near the entrance of Silver Bay Seafoods. Police said the estimated time of the accident was closer to 6 p.m., and occurred a mile up Blue Lake Road from its intersection with Sawmill Creek Road.
Police Chief Robert Baty said the indications are that the four had been returning to town after fishing at Blue Lake campground. Those searching found skid marks on the gravel road indicating a loss of control of the vehicle, and that speed seemed to be a factor in the accident. After the vehicle went off the road, it flipped and rolled about 400 feet down the steep hillside into Sawmill Creek.
The survivor who made the call was picked up in an ambulance near Silver Bay Seafoods, and police found another around the same time on Blue Lake Road. Those two were taken to the hospital by ambulance, and searchers found the third teen alongside the creek downstream from where the vehicle was found.

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