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SALT LAKE CITY -- Rescue crews have called off the search for the night for a 7-year-old boy who fell in a canal.
Trejon Brown was trying to cross a pipe bridge with friends Saturday when he fell in. The family joined the search on Sunday. Even though time is against them, they're still maintaining a level of hope.
The boy's grandfather, Wilbert Miller, said, "It's pretty rough right now. We're sticking in there."
He, along with other family and friends, looked on, waiting for something. They're preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.
"Hoping they find him. I know they aint going to find him alive. I don't believe that. Got to hope. Hoping they do," Miller said.
Salt Lake County Search and Rescue along with the Department of Public Safety Dive Team started at 7:00 Sunday morning. The river dropped overnight and now stands at 18 feet deep, 100 feet across. Midway through the day, crews covered a half mile from where Brown was last seen.
Saturday night Brown was using a pipe as a bridge to walk across the surplus canal when he fell into the water. The two boys who were with him say he made it under a bridge onto the other side of Redwood Road and was last seen near the intersection of Redwood Road and California Avenue. Expert teams believe he's close to that point and not farther downstream.
Sgt. Corey Latham, with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, said, "The body, the size and stature of the young man we're looking for would generally sink to the bottom, and once it gets to the bottom would travel very slowly if at all."
Crews are probing the depths of the canal as well as using underwater sonar to map out the river's bottom. The sonar surveys a 90 foot area, then signals the ultrasound picture through a cable to a nearby computer.
"We've found a couple things that we've investigated further. They've turned out to be old tires or logs or piles of concrete," Latham said.
And while crews work, the family waits.
"He's missed already, but that's the way it is honey. That's the way it goes. He's missed already," Miller said.
Crews have set up a grid system to prevent anything from floating further down stream. They plan to resume the search in the morning.
E-mail: ngonzales @ksl.com
