HARRISVILLE, Weber County — Tandi Hadley's heart breaks every time she walks through her front door, knowing that her 13-year-old daughter will never come home.

"Every time I've gone home, which is so hard to do, it's been decorated," Hadley said through tears Friday. "There are flowers and cards and calls and texts. Every time I feel like I can't handle one more minute of this, someone is there to lift and to support and love."

Siera Hadley, an active and kind-hearted girl from Harrisville, died after the boat she was riding in capsized under the wind-whipped waves at Bear Lake on Monday.

Stranded for hours in cold water, Siera's small body succumbed to hypothermia, along with three members of the family she was with — Lance Capener, 45, of Pleasant View, and his daughters, 13-year-old Kelsey and 7-year-old Kilee.

Three others survived. The turbulent water eventually separated Kathryn Capener from her husband and daughters, and pulled away the girls' two friends, Tiffany Stoker, 14, and Tylinn Tilley, 13. The two teens swam and prayed and sang together as they fought for shore, the physical effort likely saving their lives.

Tiffany and Tylinn were released from the hospital the next day, while Kathryn Capener continued to improve at Logan Regional Hospital on Friday. She is expected to be released soon.

'They were heroes'

Tandi Hadley said she has no doubt the Capeners did everything possible to care for her daughter that tragic day.

"They were heroes. They were there for my daughter in her last moments. I'm so glad that she was with such a great family," she said.

As she waited for news on the shore, Hadley said she found Kathryn Capener. The two mothers held hands, she said, as Kathryn Capener asked for updates on the search, unconcerned for her own treatment.

"To see her bravery and to see her kindness … I'm grateful to her for taking that role, and taking (Siera) under her wing like a mother," Hadley said. "I know she was comforted.

Lance Capener, a healthy marathoner and a strong swimmer, unquestionably fought to protect the girls, Hadley said.

"(Lance) as well was there, trying to hold those girls up and help them," she said. "To know (Siera) is with them … is a great comfort. I know she is OK."

In a statement released on Kathryn Capener's behalf Thursday, the Pleasant View woman thanked the many people who searched for and treated the group, as well as the love and concern from countless others. She doesn't know how or why she survived, she said, but she is grateful that she lived to care for her son who stayed home that day.

"The day before the accident was an ordinary day for the Capener family," the statement emphasized. "If there is something Kathryn would want people to take away from this tragedy, it is to cherish every day with your children and spouse because you don’t know when it will be the last day spent with them."

Chris Samuels/Deseret News

Joining the search

Among the many searchers and first responders who rushed to find the missing boaters was Brian Hirschi, a man who grew up near Bear Lake.

He didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, Hirschi said he believes a divine hand led him to a patch of high ground where he could spot Tylinn and Tiffany drifting in the lake.

"It was extremely lucky, or maybe divine guidance, that we were in the right spot at the right time to spot the first two girls who were rescued. Had we been 1 mile north or 1 mile south, we would not have seen them," Hirschi said in a written statement Friday.

Hirschi, who spent most summers growing up on Bear Lake and has owned a boat rental business there for 18 years, was working at the marina when some especially powerful wind gusts hit "out of nowhere" Monday, he said.

Soon after, increased activity around the marina made it clear that something had gone wrong out of the water, sending rescuers scrambling to help.

Hirschi and his cousin Joey Stocking offered to head to the foothills between the small towns of Fish Haven and St. Charles to scope out the water's surface with binoculars. They took down a phone number to contact dispatchers and headed to separate hilltops.

Within a few minutes of positioning themselves with their binoculars, the men both spotted what appeared to be two black dots a few miles out on the water. They soon realized those dots could possibly be the missing boaters and called in their location, Hirschi using the headlights and emergency flashers on his truck to signal the right direction to a search boat.

As the boat approached, "I saw arms and hands extended above their heads waving frantically," Hirschi said.

A searcher on the boat made a quick phone call to Hirschi, who kept watch from above as the craft went after the two girls who kept disappearing from view amidst the huge waves.

In less than two minutes, Hirschi was told, "OK, yes, we see them, bye," and the call disconnected.

Hirschi and Stocking drove to check in with police, then returned to continue their vigil on the hilltops. Soon they spotted another black dot on the water, again doing what they could to guide nearby boats to the right location. It was a float tube, with three people nearby.

Chris Samuels/Deseret News

"We heard they had begun life-saving aid to the victims, and we knew it wasn't good," Hirschi recalled.

When the darkness became too profound to see anything with binoculars, Hirschi and another searcher took one of Hirschi's rental boats to help search for the final members missing from the party, slowly zigzagging toward the spot where the tube had been found. As helicopters began buzzing over the lake, Hirschi and Stocking heard on the radio that the overturned boat had been found.

They had been searching for about 30 to 45 minutes when they saw something in their searchlight. They pulled the teenage girl, cold and unresponsive in her life jacket, from the freezing water. Hirschi, a former Coast Guard captain, performed CPR while the other man radioed for help.

A Utah State Parks boat arrived to rush the girl to shore, leaving Hirschi and his search partner with a pair of night vision goggles to continue searching the site. Within minutes they spotted another teenage girl unconscious in the water. Again, a state parks boat was quickly at their side to get the girl to shore.

While Hirschi, Stocking and the other searchers mourn those who died, they celebrate those who lived, Hirschi says.

"The victims were all wearing life jackets, but we just couldn't get to everybody in time. The medical people told us later that if the surviving victims would have been found just minutes later, they probably wouldn't have survived," Hirschi said. "To see small specs in the vastness of the lake and to get life-saving help to those small specs in time was definitely a miracle."

Love from friends

With her daughter gone, Hadley describes her grief as a great weight that falls upon her shoulders, forcing her down. But without fail, a friend or a family member or even a stranger has come to lift it off. It's a love that the mother hopes to return as she moves forward.

Some of Hadley's greatest comfort has come from her daughter's friends, especially the survivors, Tiffany and Tylinn. The teens have come to her home to talk, laugh and cry virtually every day since Siera died, and they intend to keep coming by in the years to come.

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"I didn't think I would be able to go back home, but they walked in with me," Hadley said. "I love them so much. They're my new adopted daughters. They've been such a support through this, and I'm so glad Siera had that great of friends."

The home is covered, inside and out, with orange ribbons and decorations, Siera's favorite color.

"There are things all over the doorstep. Every time I come home, I have to bring them in," Hadley says, a smile breaking through.

As she sat to write her teenage daughter's obituary, Hadley said she was overwhelmed at all her daughter accomplished in her short life, including high honors in school, victories in track and soccer, service at local shelters, and a steady stream of home-baked treats for her family.

"The most important thing was her kind heart," the mother recalled. "Now I'm going to have to continue that, and continue to work twice as hard. I've also asked the girls to help with that, Tylinn and Tiffany, if they can carry some of the load that Siera would have accomplished and the hearts she would have touched."

Contributing: Mike Anderson

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