Kersey – The body of a 4-year-old Kersey boy who went missing Friday while riding an all-terrain vehicle was found Sunday evening on the banks of the South Platte River.
Weld County Undersheriff Margie Martinez said a group of seven civilian searchers found Sam Cockroft about 5:30 p.m., 4 miles downstream from his home. His body was trapped by a cottonwood tree branch hanging over the water.
A dive team was nearby, and they gave Sam’s father time alone with his body, said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke.
An army of more than 300 searchers – using boats, dogs, divers, trucks, personal watercraft and airplanes – had combed the South Platte River all day Sunday.
The teams fanned out across the riverbanks looking for the boy or his child-size ATV, which was not found.
Emergency crews from all across northern Colorado aided in the search, but two-thirds of people helping were local residents, according to Cooke.
The river had been higher than normal because of recent heavy rainfall, and dams were opened to lower the river for search crews.
“He went in at the worst time,” Cooke said.
While police and fire crews used professional diving equipment, walkie-talkies and a light plane, the volunteers came with a motley assortment of personal gear.
People used their own ATVs, personal watercraft, horses, boats, cars and trucks looking for the boy.
“This is why we live in a small family-based community,” volunteer Jim Canon said. “If it would have been my kid, they would have been here.”
Martinez said Sam left home to ride an ATV on the family’s property about 7 p.m. Friday.
Nicole Cockroft, his mother, was inside with her three other children, ages 5, 2 and 1.
About 30 minutes later, Cockroft began looking for him.
The Sheriff’s Office was contacted after she and neighbors could not find the boy.
The family owns the Cockroft Dairy Farm, 27700 Weld County Road 388, in Kersey.
Martinez said the boy was riding a small ATV with a 50- cubic-centimeter engine on the family’s private property and that no laws prevented him from operating a vehicle.
Cooke said it was not unusual for families on farmland to allow small children to operate ATVs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Christopher Ortiz can be reached at 303-820-1201 or cortiz@denverpost.com.
