One teen missing, one rescued from Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area

HOOPER, Utah — One teen is missing, and another was rescued from Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area Sunday afternoon.

According to Lt. Colby Ryan with Weber County Sheriff’s Office, three 17-year-olds went swimming, a girl and two boys, at the Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area.

They were swimming near a retention dam and one of the boys went underwater near the dam, which currently has a strong undercurrent. The other boy jumped in to help him, but became stuck at the dam and couldn’t get out. The girl was able to crawl out of the water and call 911 at approximately 4:30 p.m.

Two deputies arrived and stripped down of all their gear, then climbed onto the dam where the second boy was barely hanging on with only his head above water, to try not to go through the dam. The deputies were able to pull him out to safety and rescue him just in time.

“There was no rafts they had no flotation devices on, they were just out in the water, which is about 7 to 8 feet deep,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately, the area they were swimming in is right next to retention dam, which when deputies arrived, there was a pretty severe undercurrent where the first teen had gone underwater.”

The other boy remains missing.

Search and rescue arrived, and there were now about 25 volunteers searching, including divers and a drone team. The water isn’t very deep, but Ryan said it is extremely murky.

“What makes it real challenging is we don’t really know where he went under,” Ryan said. “And the water’s so murky, that the divers can only see about four to five inches in front of their masks. We’re starting a grid search. We believe we have five divers in the water right now and the drone team up above watching to see if they can see anything.”

While a “no trespassing” sign on the gate to the Ogden Bay WMA says it is closed due to flooding, Ryan said it’s unclear if the area is actually still closed or if that sign was still up from the spring.