Rafter’s Body Found, Another Missing

The body of an Everett man has been recovered but a Marysville woman remained missing Monday after a rafting accident on the Duckabush River, Jefferson County officials said.

Names of the man and woman, both 20, were withheld.

Sheriff’s deputies said the two and a 22-year-old Bothell man launched a doughnut-shaped vinyl raft Sunday about five miles above the river mouth and about a 45-mile drive south of Port Townsend. None wore life jackets.

About a mile downstream, the raft hit a tree and flipped, throwing all three into the water. The Bothell man made it ashore and went for help.

The body of the Everett man was found Sunday night, and the raft was found snagged on a tree Monday, Sheriff Don Johnson said.

The search for the woman was continuing, but “it’s really unlikely that we would be able to do much more until the water comes down,” Johnson said.

The raft was unsuitable for the river, which was strewn with fallen trees and rapids and running high with mountain snowmelt because of unusually warm weather, the sheriff added.

“Most people would likely not attempt this hard a river with any type of raft. It’s a pretty messy place, with all the trees snagged across,” said Jim Groh, leader of the search effort. “Even experienced rafters would not try this type of thing.”

Meanwhile, two 16-year-old Snoqualmie girls were safe after the air went out of their raft Sunday evening on the Snoqualmie River, King County police said.

The girls managed to make it to a beach east of Snoqualmie, called 911 on their cellular phone and were located by search crews and a KSTW-TV helicopter. One was taken to a hospital for treatment of a minor ankle injury.