Search continues for missing boy at Wallace Marine Park

Jonathan Bach
Statesman Journal
Search and rescue crews from more than six agencies search in the Willamette River in Salem for a 5-year-old boy that disappeared while playing at Wallace Marine Park on Saturday, August 5, 2017.

UPDATE 5:00 p.m. Sunday:

The search for Allen "Chaz" Pearson will resume Monday morning.

A plane, a boat from the Salem Fire Department and other boats will search Monday, according to Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton.

One boat was slated to keep searching until dark on Sunday, but searchers had otherwise pulled out for the day.

UPDATE 11:30 a.m. Sunday:

Efforts to find a 5-year-old boy who went missing at Wallace Marine Park are entering a third day as officials resume their search.

Officials have scaled back the number of personnel looking for Allen "Chaz" Pearson for the time being. Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton estimated about 16 people had come to help Sunday morning. There were around eight just before noon.

A search plane was making passes in the morning, and Garton believes it is scheduled to come back later in the day.

Pearson is the second boy to go missing in the area of the park this year. In June, Nehemiah Wilson, 11, was in the Willamette River when he was seen struggling in the water, eventually vanishing.

Wilson went missing on a Friday and his body was found downstream the following Wednesday in Yamhill County. Officials had led a similar search right after Wilson's disappearance. 

But it's unclear at this point whether Pearson, a roughly 4-foot-tall boy who was last seen in camouflage swimming trunks, was even in the river.

"The last time he was seen he was sitting on the rocks right at the river’s edge,” Garton said. 

Officials have searched some five kilometers down each side of the river, Garton said.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Search and rescue crews are continuing their search for a 5-year-old boy who went missing at Wallace Marine Park Friday afternoon.  

Allen "Chaz" Pearson was last seen at 5:30 p.m. Friday playing with other children near the pedestrian bridge over the Willamette River.

Polk County Sheriff's Office, Salem Police Department and Salem Fire Rescue searched the Willamette River and Wallace Marine Park past 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Officials continued their search around 7 a.m. Saturday. 

Polk County Search and Rescue, Polk County SAR Drone, Polk County Marine Patrol, Yamhill County Search and Rescue, Yamhill County Marine Patrol, Benton County Search and Rescue, Benton County Air, and Marion County Communications and the Mountain Wave Search and Rescue (Dive Team) are assisting with the search of the area.

Between 65 and 70 people searched the area, according to Lt. Richard Bittick of Polk County Sheriff's Office.  

Allen "Chaz" Pearson, 5, went missing at Wallace Marine Park on Friday.

Boat crews searched up to four miles down the river by 11:30 a.m. Officials made multiple passes along both sides of the bank.

"Although (the water) looks relatively calm it is very swift," Bittick said. "It's treacherous water. 

Volunteers and officials have walked roughly a mile down the river by foot along the bank. 

Bittick said the Clackamas County Water Rescue team searched the main channel of the Willamette River north and south of the pedestrian bridge but did not find any signs of the boy.

"They searched the water inlet there and a small slough just the bank underneath here," Bittick said, pointing to the rushing current underneath the pedestrian bridge. "Based on their experience they feel they covered this area well."

He said search efforts will wrap up Saturday evening and are expected to continue Sunday. Crews are expanding the search area by following the river toward the Keizer area, Bittick said. 

Officials are unable to confirm how much ground air patrol has been able to cover, but said air resources tend to be faster and capable of covering more surface area of a region. 

"We don't have confirmed clues of what actually happened," Bittick said. "I have no confirmed indications that they saw him in the water or even saw him wander off."

American Red Cross Disaster Relief volunteers provided canteen service to crews at Wallace Marine Park. Volunteers passed out water, fruit and other snacks for first responders. 

According to officials, Pearson is about 4 feet tall, and weighing 50 pounds, with dark hair and small tail on the back of his head. 

Pearson's family is requesting privacy at this time.

This story will be updated as more information is available.

These are the shorts that Allen "Chaz" Pearson was last seen wearing.