Divers Continue Efforts to Retrieve Boy’s Body

By Edith Brady-Lunny, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

Mar. 21–UPDATE 1 P.M. CLINTON — The Chicago Police Department marine unit is helping the search this afternoon for an 8-year-old child missing for a week in Clinton Lake. — Video

The unit arrived around 11 a.m. with specialized sonar equipment that will allow rescue crews to accurately pinpoint the location of Kalin Hunter of Normal, who has been missing since a boating accident last Wednesday.

Conservation officer Kim Knight said the dive team is doing preliminary work, laying out safety lines, before they enter the water. They are expected to go in at any time.

Sonar readings collected Tuesday put the child’s body at the base of the spillway, some distance from where the bodies of his uncle and grandfather were recovered last Thursday, said Knight.

A large orange canopy was erected next to the water and workers could be seen gathered around a monitor reviewing sonar video recorded earlier.

Conservation crews worked until 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night and rescue teams have been at the site since the accident was reported last Wednesday.

Search and rescue teams from Hillsboro and Jacksonville were at the spillway Wednesday morning to assist conservation police.

Police believe the child’s body is tangled in debris at the base of the spillway. The bodies of Richard Hunter, 59, and Jason Hunter, 29, both of Normal, were recovered from the same area last Thursday.

Knight said the family’s pastor, the Rev. John Rayford of Mount Moriah Christian Church in Normal, was at the lake Wednesday morning observing the rescue efforts.

A joint funeral for the three victims is planned for Thursday in Peoria.

The accident happened last Wednesday evening when the family’s new boat ran out of gas and went over the spillway during a storm. The spillway carries water and debris from Clinton Lake into Salt Creek.

Rescuers using side-scan sonar equipment Tuesday morning located what they believe to be the child’s body. Knight said they must pinpoint the exact location before sending a diver into the water because of heavy debris near the spillway.

To illustrate her point, Knight brought a snarled, 12-pound pile of fishing net, pliers, lures, fishing line and pieces of two fishing poles. The oblong mess was about 2 feet long and 12 inches across and was packed solidly.

Workers have been using dredging equipment to pull the debris away from the spillway. As they do, other workers drop in the sonar equipment, which returns camera-like pictures to a monitor on a nearby boat.

It’s “a good speculation that he is caught in the debris,” Knight said.

Rescuers said there was no way to stop the water flow from the spillway as the rescue operation continued.

Earlier Tuesday, the rescue effort brought some confusion as state and county officials provided different versions of how the search was going and whether the boy’s body had been found. Knight said that confusion stemmed from a difference in using the terms “locating” and “recovering.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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