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SALT LAKE CITY -- Crews are still searching a canal in Salt Lake City for a little boy who fell in Saturday night. In a news conference Monday afternoon Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman Scott Freitag said teams will return to the spot where the boy first fell to continue their search.
The crews spent all afternoon probing the 18-foot depths of the canal and are now using sonar to survey under the bridge.
Initially, the boys who were with 8-year-old Trejon Brown said he fell from the pipe and last time they saw his head was on the other side of the bridge. Now those witnesses are changing their story.
"Further investigation and interrogation talking with witnesses, we believe that nobody actually did see him pass that bridge. And so we move the operation from where we were down stream back up to the point of entry," Freitag said.
Search and rescue and dive teams started the day combing north of the bridge to about a half-mile downstream. They've placed a grid at that point and are certain Trejon has not gone past it.
Meanwhile, the boy's mother and family are waiting for answers. "I really don't want to accept it. I'm not going to lie. I don't want to accept it, but I have to. And I'm just going to be strong. It's the only thing I can do. I can't bring him back, so I'm just going to be strong," Star Brown said.
Crews say they will work Monday as long as the weather and daylight permit. They plan to continue their search on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Salt Lake City Fire Department says the surplus canal is a problem every year because there are no protections around it.
They say children have complete access to it because there are no fences or gates. The pipe isn't protected either. Officials say typically there's some type of barbed wire fencing around the ends of the pipe. Now, with a possible death looming, no one is claiming ownership of the pipe.
"We have made contact with every governmental agency that we think or may have responsibility for that pipe, and no one's claiming ownership or responsibility for it," Freitag said. "Everybody's curious and wants to know, and we certainly want to know. Want to find out if there's anything they can do."
Salt Lake County Flood controls the actual canal, but they don't own the pipe or know who does. Freitag says it's possible that it may be an abandoned pipe.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
