Authorities recovered the body of a 9-year-old boy who got swept away Tuesday in the Duck River.
Dreyton Sims was swimming in the river near Shelbyville in Bedford County with his 11-year old. The older brother was able to get out, but Sims was unable to be rescued, states a WBIR report.
Bedford County Sheriff Austin Swing said the 9-year-old’s body was found in about two miles from where he went missing, in Shelbyville.
Sims was last seen Tuesday afternoon and rescue efforts were ongoing since then.
“We’ve been dealing with the father and the mother, and what we tell them is that I’m a father myself and we’re going to do everything we can to find their child,” said Bedford County EMA Director Scott Johnson. “Because it’s not just a job, it’s our passion.”
After rescue efforts, which stopped Tuesday night because of dark and dangerous waters, resumed Wednesday morning, officials still held out hope.
Bedford County officials began anew around 8 a.m. Wednesday, searching by boat. The focus was downstream, about half-a-mile, where the depth is from 2 to 15 feet.The river water had risen by about a foot between Tuesday and Wednesday night and currents were reported as dangerous. Thursday, officials decided to change from a rescue to a recovery effort, giving up all but the slightest hope of finding Sims alive.
Recovery efforts are now using sonar and flat-bottom boats to look for signs of the youth’s body.
Sims and his 11-year-old brother, according to the WBIR report, swam often at the spot where he was lost.
“Sometimes folks can get out on the side of the river on the riverbank. They get scared. We have been searching the riverbanks as well as the water, but we don’t know yet at this point. I’m not prepared to call it either way,” Scott Johnson with Bedford County EMA said.
Dreyton reportedly learned how to swim about a year ago.
