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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man, boy still missing in Nisqually River


Jeff Norton, left, of the Thurston County Sheriff's Department, and Detective Steve Hamilton inspect the motor of a boat Friday near Lacey, Wash. Dive teams searched Friday for a 9-year-old boy and a man missing after the boat overturned in the Nisqually River, but officials were not optimistic they would find them alive. Associated Press
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

LACEY, Wash. – Dive teams searched unsuccessfully Friday for a 9-year-old boy and a man missing after a small boat overturned in the swift-flowing Nisqually River. The body of a 5-year-old boy was recovered earlier.

“If they went in this water, there’s really no hope that they’re alive,” Dave Pearsall, Thurston County sheriff’s chief civil deputy, said Friday.

The 9-year-old’s younger brother died after the boat carrying five people capsized Thursday evening just upstream from the Interstate 5 bridge south of Fort Lewis. The boat operator, who has been arrested, and the boys’ mother made it to shore safely.

After a search Thursday night, divers searched from first light until 6 p.m. Friday and planned to resume their efforts today, Pearsall said.

In other developments Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch found probable cause to order 42-year-old Vincent Farler, of Olympia, held for investigation of three counts of homicide by watercraft and operation of a watercraft while under the influence of alcohol. Bail was set at $75,000.

In court documents, prosecutors identified the two missing boaters as Bryan Pierce and 9-year-old Cameron McCartney. They identified the dead 5-year-old as Sean McCartney.

Farler and Erin McCartney, the boys’ mother, made it to shore after the 16-foot flat-bottomed boat equipped with an outboard motor capsized after getting caught on a logjam.

Erin McCartney clung to the overturned boat as it floated downstream, and eventually a woman who was in her backyard on the riverbank helped her.

Pierce was last seen floating downriver, trying to grab hold of Sean McCartney, court papers said. The little boy’s body was recovered Thursday night about 250 yards downstream.

The woman and her boys were from the Yelm area, sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy said.

The mother had met Farler on Thursday at the river and he offered them a ride on his boat, said sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputy Jim Chamberlain. The father of the two boys is currently serving with the U.S. military in Iraq.

Apparently no one on the boat was wearing a life jacket. Under state law, Mealy said, a boat of that size should carry a life jacket for each occupant and the children should have been wearing theirs.

Outside court on Friday, Farler’s father, Dave, told reporters there were life jackets on the boat, in a white cooler. After the boat flipped, the white cooler was found stuck in the logjam.

A preliminary breath test measured Vincent Farler’s blood alcohol level at 0.193, more than twice the legal intoxication threshold for operating a boat, court papers said.

“It’s one of those things where people don’t respect this river enough,” Pearsall said. “It may look like a calm river, but it’s not. It has currents everywhere, it has undertow. You shouldn’t have people out here without life jackets on.”

The river is colder, higher and swifter this time of year because of runoff from the melting snowpack in the mountains. Lt. Greg Elwin, head of the Thurston County sheriff’s dive team, said the water temperature was 50 to 55 degrees, in which people can develop hypothermia within minutes.

Officials have adjusted the water flow out of Alder Dam, and the water level in the river has been lowered to assist the search.