A child’s body was recovered Friday in the Arkansas River near the Big Drops Rapids where an 11-year-old Golden boy went missing Wednesday.
The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office says the body recovered was a boy’s. Authorities, however, have not definitively confirmed whether the body is that of the Golden boy, who fell from a raft during a commercial rafting trip.
Sheriff John Spezze said Friday an underwater dive team and scent dogs joined the hunt for the youth.
“We’ve been pretty good with resources,” he said, adding that roughly 45 people are now part of the search party.
The boy was on a raft operated by the Adventure Company when it high-sided about 11 miles north of Salida at the Big Drop Rapids, a Class 3 section.
Three rafters fell into the river, and all were recovered except for the boy, who was rafting with family members.
The raft company told The Denver Post on Thursday they remained open and continued trips.
“This is as bad as it gets,” Mark Hammer, one of the rafting company’s owners, said, describing a somber mood at the operation Thursday.
