The body of a 6-year-old boy has been recovered nearly 72 hours after the child and his mother drowned after falling into a fast-moving river in Massachusetts while on a family camping trip.
The multi-day search effort that sprawled out across the Merrimack River in Newburyport, located about 35 miles northeast of Boston, concluded on Sunday at around 2pm when a kayaker found the body of Mason DeChhat about half a mile from where the boy had last been seen on Deer Island.
“It is with great sadness we must report the body of the young boy has been recovered. The family has been notified and we pray this gives the family some closure,” the Amesbury police said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.
Mason, his three siblings and his parents had been visiting the popular recreational destination on a family fishing trip from their home in Lowell. On Thursday night, at around 7pm, the 6-year-old fell into the water while attempting to grab something, authorities reported. Mason’s sister, 7-year-old sister Elyssa, tried to grab hold of her brother but she too eventually ended up caught in the fast-moving current.
The boy’s mother, Boua, 29, jumped in after the pair and tried to save her children, but being unable to swim herself, she only managed to grab hold of her daughter while her son was whisked further down the river.
The pair were then hoisted onto the deck of a nearby boat who saw the mother and daughter struggling for life. Mark Bajko, a bystander, and a police officer administered CPR on the 29-year-old, but their efforts proved unsuccessful.
“I’m going as hard as I can,” Mr Bajko told local news station WCVB. “I’ve already called 911 on my way over and I’m doing CPR and finally, a police officer taps me and says, ‘Hey let me take over.’ And he takes over and I stand up and at that moment and that second, a little girl stopped crying and yells, ‘My brother is still in the water.’”
The mother and daughter were taken to Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport. The child was treated and released shortly after, while the mother, who was found unresponsive and not breathing, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
“We’ve seen several tragedies on the river, but not usually where a whole family is affected. It is a sad situation, and we had a lot of hope (Thursday) night. A lot of agencies – state agencies, local agencies – put a lot of effort into trying to find this 6-year-old,” said Newburyport fire Chief Christopher LeClaire in an interview with WCVB.
Moments before the children and Boua had fallen in the river, the father, Sammy, 31, had gone to their car to retrieve something. Upon returning, he saw the emergency that had unfolded and quickly leaped into action and followed the trio into the water. The 31-year-old father was also not known to be a strong swimmer, state police said, and he managed to get back toward shore where he clung onto a rock before exiting the river.
He was transported to Seabrook Hospital in New Hampshire to be treated for hypothermia and exposure.
By Friday afternoon, more than 12 hours after the tragedy had unfolded, authorities indicated that they’d changed their strategy of rescuing 6-year-old Mason to one of recovery while the Coast Guard announced that they’d be suspending their efforts.
“It is always a difficult decision to suspend a search and rescue case, and even more painful when children are involved,” said Capt Kailie Benson, Coast Guard Sector Boston commander in a prepared statement. “Considering the extensive search efforts by the Coast Guard and the numerous state and local agencies, along with on scene conditions, I have made the decision to suspend the search for the missing 6-year-old boy. Our prayers are with the boy and mother’s family and friends during this time.”
The Massachusetts State Police continued the search for the child’s body into the weekend after having spent 10 hours on Friday scouring shorelines and sending 12 divers into the strong current, which they noted posed an additional challenge for the agencies involved, which included harbourmasters, the Coast Guard, state and local police, as well as fire departments from around the region and environmental officers.
On Saturday, when the teams had shifted into a recovery mission, officers searched from 8am till 7pm and then resumed at the same time on Sunday before the child’s body was recovered by a kayaker at 2pm.
“Please share this photo of my son to everyone you know. I hope somebody can help me find him and bring him home,” wrote the boy’s father in a Facebook post on Sunday morning, just hours before he would be found that afternoon. “My wife went to heaven as a hero. She was found floating with my daughter on her back. She tried to save both my son and daughter when they got caught in the tide. My son is still missing.”
Local news reported that by Sunday, a makeshift memorial of flowers and candles had been established to commemorate the members of the six-person family from Lowell who had died in last week’s tragedy.
“Boua(30) heroically tried to save her children, Elyssa(7) and Mason(6), who were taken by the water’s edge and swept away by the current,” wrote a family friend in a GoFundMe that’s been set up to help the father and his children with funeral costs. “She was able to save Elyssa and hand her off to a fishing boat that came over to help but drowned trying to save her son Mason.”
Three of four of the children were students at Murkland Elementary School in Lowell, according to the fundraiser page.
