St. Maries Staggered By Deaths Of 2 Teens Doctors Couldn’t Revive Boys Who Fell Through Ice Into Flooded Creek

Two St. Maries teenagers who crashed through thin ice and spent more than an hour in a flood-swollen creek died Saturday morning.

Daniel Shaw, 17, died at 1:50 a.m. at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane after doctors struggled to warm his body above 80 degrees.

His best friend, Jason Moore, also 17, died 40 minutes later.

“We got their hearts beating but we were never able to wean them from a heart monitor,” said emergency physician John Ganji.

The loss of the popular high school seniors left St. Maries students and adults reeling Saturday.

“It was a long sleepless night,” said Jim Shubert, assistant chief for the St. Maries Rural Fire District.

“It’s awful. Everybody’s just devastated,” said Don Eberlin, a family friend who coached the boys in baseball and football.

The drownings are the latest in a monthlong string of blows to the city of 3,000 people.

The biggest fire in 20 years gutted three downtown businesses Jan. 30. February floods damaged 42 businesses and more than 100 homes. Many homes remain under 12 feet of water.

“A lot of people are suffering here,” said Dave Cox, superintendent of the St. Maries School District. “But until now we’ve been fortunate: We’ve dealt only with loss of property.

“Loss of life is an altogether different story.”

The two boys walked out onto the ice about 4:30 p.m. Friday in Milltown. They broke through 10 yards apart from one another and clung to the surface for 45 minutes before slipping under water.

Rescue workers were hampered by mushy, inconsistent ice, cold and darkness. Moore was underwater 20 minutes and Shaw 45 minutes before they were recovered and taken to Benewah Community Hospital. They were flown to Deaconess about 7 p.m.

Friends said the boys - both avid hunters and experienced ice fishermen - probably were just playing around when they walked out onto the frozen water.

“What would make you go out on ice like that except dinging around on a sunny Friday after school?” asked Mitch Santos, 43, a family friend and teacher. “It’s a huge loss for our school.”

School officials Saturday updated a crisis team to prepare for troubled teenagers on Monday. High school principal Jerry Bayley sent a letter to students’ parents, saying that a counselor will be available for the children. Discouraged rescue workers and firefighters will get stress-management counseling tonight.

“St. Maries is a tight-knit community with a lot of proud people,” Shubert said. “A lot of them wouldn’t accept help from the Red Cross after the flooding because they thought it was welfare.

“But with the fires, then the floods and now this, it (stress) really builds up.”

Students who had gathered at the hospital Friday night regrouped at Shaw’s home Saturday to comfort one another.

Others spent much of the day talking about Shaw and Moore with their families.

J.D. Ragan, 18 - a friend of Shaw’s since kindergarten - recalled a lifetime of sleep-overs, birthday parties and teenage hunting and fishing trips.

“You couldn’t not like Danny,” Ragan said, his voice shaking. “He wouldn’t hurt anybody. And Jason was just like Danny.”

Al Shaw, Daniel’s father and an eighth-grade science teacher, said his son was an honors student and a Boy Scout and was always full of energy.

“He was the type that couldn’t sit still,” Shaw said. “He could put in an eight-hour day and then go haul hay for a friend.”

Moore’s family declined to be interviewed Saturday.

Both boys were Aaronic priests in St. Maries’ 125-member Mormon church and joined Bishop Rex Smith at weekly classes.

“The last thing we did together was build a podium for the church,” Smith said. “They were good young men, always helping people.”

He said Moore liked the outdoors so much he had talked about working as a game warden after graduation.

Ragan said Moore was almost never seen without a hunting jacket and “his favorite color was camouflage.”

The boys were so inseparable that funeral services will be held jointly at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Heyburn Elementary School. All schools in the district will shut down at 1 p.m. that day.

“It will be pretty sad around here for at least a few weeks,” Smith said. “It’s definitely been a trial at the start of 1996.”

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