River search now recovery effort
18-year-old was swimming before being swept into current
Update: A search for an 18-year-old Montgomery man who disappeared Sunday in the Fox River is now being considered a recovery effort, fire officials said Monday evening, calling the chances for survival in the fast-moving river “minimal at best.”
About 40 personnel from the Oswego, Aurora, Bristol/Kendall and Montgomery fire departments, the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Conservation Police have been searching for Robbie Funston since he disappeared below the surface of the water while taking a dip with four other friends, Oswego Battalion Chief Bill Perkins said. Alcohol is not considered to be a factor in the accident.
(Marianne Mather/Staff Photographer)
(Terence Guider-Shaw/Special to the Beacon News)
Searchers are using boats, a small aircraft, and sonar, concentrating their search around the Washington Street Bridge, where Funston went under about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The Aurora Fire Department sent one diver into the water Monday afternoon, but the search was unsuccessful, according to Assistant Fire Chief John Lehman. Because of the swift current, clocked at four knots per hour, no further diving efforts are planned, Lehman said.
Perkins vowed that the search would continue for several days.
“The goal is to continue until we have a recovery,” he said. “We’ll do the best we can.”
Update: It was a grim scene in Oswego Monday morning as crews continued to search the Fox River for an 18-year-old who went missing while swimming with friends around Sunday afternoon.
Friends identified the missing teen as Robbie Funston of Montgomery, but police would not confirm the identity.
Family and friends spent the morning under a blue tent in the parking lot near the Washington Street Bridge in downtown Oswego as they waited for word from fire and police officials conducting the search.
Boats hummed and idled along the river, stretching toward the Orchard Road bridge between Oswego and Yorkville and around the scene downtown where the teen went missing after being pulled under by a strong current while playing in the water.
An employee of a nearby car dealership said teens would often swim in the river, near an island where a tire swing and rushing water made a "pseudo" perfect summer playground. They would often cut across the car lot, in wet clothes as employees warned them of the dangers.
On a Myspace page made by Fuston, friends wished him well, and said they were praying for his safe return.
As of noon on Monday, searchers were still on the river looking for any trace of the boy. Strong currents and high waters made the already difficult task even tougher.
Camera crews and media set up along the river, trying to catch a glimpse of the action. Along Route 34, passengers in cars curiously peered out their windows.
Update: Rescue crews were back on the scene Monday morning, searching for an 18-year-old Montgomery resident who disappeared in the Fox River Sunday afternoon.
The teen was swimming in the river with friends when he was drawn under the waters, authorities said.
Oswego police were not releasing the identity of the 18-year-old. Monday morning, rescue boats from Aurora and Oswego were combing the river near the Washington Street bridge downtown. Divers were also on the scene.
Friends and family members started gathering at about 7:30 a.m., but were not allowed near the riverbank. Instead, they gathered at a riverside parking lot at Washington and Harrison street.
OSWEGO -- Summer fun turned dangerous Sunday when an 18-year-old man was swept under by a strong current while swimming in the Fox River near downtown Oswego, according to the Oswego Fire Protection District. A furious, hours-long search was called off for the night late Sunday with no sign of the missing teen.
Rescue crews planned to resume searching for the man this morning.
Officials said the incident began when five teens decided to take a swim in the swollen river. When the unidentified male was drawn under at about 4:27 p.m., friends performed a brief search before calling authorities, who arrived shortly after. With dozens of fire trucks, squad cars, ambulances and water rescue crews, the long search of the Fox began.
Eight rescue boats were sent in, and water rescue crews from Montgomery, Aurora and Bristol-Kendall were dispatched to the scene, where family, friends and concerned residents looked on.
In droves people came to the Washington Street bridge; from softball games or work as the news continued to spread throughout town. On cell phones and through text-messages, high school friends received word of the accident and came to look on as the search for the missing male continued into the night.
Mothers issued warnings to their young children about not swimming in the river, while the kids peered wide-eyed over the bridge and into the water, waiting for a sign of the missing teen.
As gawking families who happened upon the scene left to head home for dinner, and police blocked off the scene with yellow caution tape, the number of onlookers decreased -- but not by many. Instead, friends moved across the street to Hudson Crossing Park where they remained throughout the evening.
"We're just waiting for him to be on one of the boats, like 'Hi guys!'" one girl said of the anticipation. Others didn't even want to know how the story would end. "It's just too real," one girl lamented.
Along the Fox, boats raced, sounding like chainsaws, as rescue crews in orange life jackets poked and prodded through mud and brush, hoping to find a sign.
"I thought there was a National Night Out when I saw all of the police cars," said Silver Marshall, who lives along the river on Route 34. That was, until a police officer knocked on her door asking if she had heard any screams or cries for help over the last couple of hours. Marshall said she hadn't, and the officer's foot search continued.
Through rain and fading sun, rescue crews continued their search. Boats went in and out of the water time and time again as hopes for the safe return of the missing teen were raised and let down.
On foot, and on boat, the searched for the boy, but to friends, it would have never been enough.
"Where were the helicopters?" one friend wondered. Why were there no divers out?
Then, through the rain emerged a giant double rainbow that encompassed the Oswego sky.
"I'm hoping it's a promise that they'll find him," one woman said.
