Body of teen boy recovered from water at Ogden Bay WMA
Jun 26, 2023, 10:08 AM | Updated: 12:44 pm
HOOPER, Utah — Search and rescue crews have recovered the body of a teenager who went missing at the Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area Sunday afternoon.
Lt. Colby Ryan with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office said three 17-year-olds — a girl and two boys from western Weber County — were swimming near a retention dam at the WMA when one of the boys went underwater. Authorities said there is currently a strong undercurrent near the dam.
“The undercurrent’s just where the water turns in circles,” he said. “Once you get lost in it, you don’t know which ways up, which ways down. They’re very difficult to swim out of, even a very strong swimmer has a hard time getting out of an undercurrent.”
The other boy jumped in to help but became stuck at the dam. The girl was able to get out of the water and called 911 around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
“Usually, if someone else goes into the water we’ve got two rescues, and this is what happened last night,” Ryan said on Monday.
Now the Weber County Sheriff office confirm the body of the missing teen was recovered late last night #KSLTV pic.twitter.com/j6w2ijiqv2
— Derek Petersen (@Derek_Photog) June 26, 2023
Search and rescue crews arrived and helped the second boy, who was barely hanging onto the dam with only his head above water.
“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.”
Dozens of volunteers, search and rescue personnel and divers searched the water with the help of drones and a sonar boat to try and locate the missing teen. Ryan said the water, while not too deep, was extremely murky. Crews located the boy’s body around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Deputies have not released his identity.
Ryan said the gate the teens got around to enter the WMA is marked “no trespassing.”
“The water, if you’re gonna be recreating around water, please please please have a life preserver on,” Ryan said.
On Monday, the body of another Utah teen was recovered from Hyrum Reservoir.
