GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Middle school student Richard Irving Buchanan, 12, is feared to have drowned while tubing on the Colorado River on Sunday.
Witnesses on the river Sunday reported seeing the youngster off his tube and struggling in the water near the South Canyon Bridge, and then seeing him sink below the surface, said Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario.
Garfield County Search and Rescue teams spent four hours Sunday evening looking for the youth, combing the banks on both sides of the river and probing deep pools, and resumed the search again Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, deputies were responding to a report that a body had been found.
Richard, an immigrant from Jamaica who would be in seventh grade at Glenwood Springs Middle School this fall, was tubing with his stepfather, Tim Heiney, and his sister, Rischma Buchanan, 19.
His mother, Sharline Heiney, said Richard did know how to swim. But he was not wearing a life jacket and had lost his flip-flops earlier in the trip, she said.
Tim Heiney, who has lived in the area since 1967, said he went to Target earlier Sunday and bought the inner tubes, and the three got in the river near Exit 116. They planned to float down to the Interstate 70 rest area below Canyon Creek, Heiney said, where they had parked a car.
Heiney said he was worried about making it through the wave park at West Glenwood, which they floated through safely.
“I thought that would be the worst part. I thought we were safe. We were having a lot of fun, wrestling around with our tubes and playing,” Heiney said.
But Rischma had some difficulty floating, Heiney said. She had scraped her knee and torn off a fingernail, and the two stopped above the South Canyon Bridge so Heiney could help her get more properly seated on her tube.
Richard was already out ahead of them but still within sight.
“I didn’t like him being that far without us. I could see him, and then I lost track of him,” Heiney said.
“I don’t think we were five minutes behind him.”
By the time Heiney reached the South Canyon Bridge, he saw Richard’s tube floating in an eddy just below the bridge.
