Missing boy's body found in lake

[Spiel]

Missing boy's body found in lake

 

 

July 16, 2008

Douglas Gloin / barrysbaythisweek.com

 

 

The search for Combermere-area teenager Brandon Zilney ended tragically yesterday when the missing boy’s body was found in Kamaniskeg Lake not far from where his empty boat was found near a cottage beach late last Thursday.

 

A cottager spotted the body of the missing 15-year-old floating face down in the water close to shore at around 9 a.m.

 

A cause of death had not yet been determined yesterday.

 

A five-man crew from the OPP’s underwater search and recovery unit had been on the lake looking for the body when the discovery was made.

 

The officers’ search area was 5½ to 6 kilometres long.

 

“The problem was there was no definitive search area,” says OPP Constable John Edwards, the team leader. “We knew where he’d left from and his destination, and where the boat was seen floating along the way.

 

“It was a huge search area. No one saw him; they just saw his boat.”

 

Wind conditions made it more difficult to pinpoint a precise search location. Police used a five-side scan sonar, which searches the bottom of the lake. Lake depths in the search area ranged from two feet to 135 feet.

 

“We wouldn’t be here if this young kid had had a life jacket on,” says Constable Sheldon Lapworth.

 

The boy was boating to work at the Chippawa Cottage Resort Thursday morning but never arrived, police said. He was last seen heading out from Hinterland Beach, which sits in a relatively sheltered bay. It was a dull day with a strong northwest wind and the waters were very choppy, several residents said. And the waves get even worse when a boater passes from the bay on to what’s known as “the big lake” – a stretch of water Brandon would have to take to get to work.

 

His four-metre Princecraft aluminum boat with a six-horsepower motor was found Thursday evening. Inside were an orange lifejacket and Brandon’s identification.

 

The boat’s discovery touched off an intensive search. An OPP helicopter, its searchlights beaming down over the dark waters, made passes over the area through the night, while officers walked the shoreline and questioned cottagers as to whether they might have seen Brandon or his boat. The hunt continued each day until Tuesday’s sad discovery.

 

Ann Farrington and her husband Larry were at their Oil City cottage when a police helicopter started making passes over the area, which is close to where Brandon’s empty boat was discovered.

 

“I was almost asleep and Larry was sitting out on the porch when all of a sudden the helicopters started,” she says. “It came up over the cottage and down over the lake. “

 

Soon after, OPP officers on foot arrived and asked whether all the boats on the Farrington’s beach belonged to them. They walked the beach with their flashlights throughout the night, and returned there Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

Ann Farrington said Brandon’s mother also joined in the search. “His mother was out looking and I said, ‘I wish there was something we could do to help you.’ And she said, ‘I just have to keep busy.’”

 

“The police were absolutely wonderful,” Mrs. Farrington said. “They were very well-mannered and very intent on finding this young man.”

 

At times there were up to four police boats involved in the search.

 

This is the second fatal tragedy of the year on Kamaniskeg. In February, two students from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay drowned when the minivan they were in broke through the ice.