Published: April 10, 2009 02:29 pm         

Water rescue called off; report called unsubstantiated

NORTH TERRE HAUTE — After searching more than 2½ hours for a boy believed in distress in Otter Creek, state conservation and rescue officers ended their search, saying an initial 911 call was unsubstantiated.

A 911 call was made at 2:18 p.m. Friday, reporting a 13-year-old girl had spotted a blonde-haired boy, believed to be about 7 years old, floating down the creek waving his hands.

The girl’s home is just north of Otter Creek along Clinton Street, north of the intersection with Haythorne Avenue.

The girl’s mother, Rita Kaperak, who made the 911 call, said the teen had been playing in a sandy area along the creek, when she came running back to the home yelling that she saw a boy floating down the creek. Other people at the house went back to the area, but could not see anything.

Kaperak said she thought it best to call for help. Multiple agencies, including Otter Creek and Sugar Creek fire departments and Vigo County’s Sheriff’s Department and Emergency Management Agency, responded.

Sugar Creek’s water rescue team put two boats in the water, one starting at a bridge near the teen’s home, while an Indiana Department of Natural Resources air boat was launched from Fairbanks Park, downstream of the incident. The boat went upstream to meet with Sugar Creek’s rescue boats.

In addition, a Lifeline helicopter was called to the scene to assist rescuers by searching the creek from the air. Also flying search patterns overhead was a plane from Brown Flying School from nearby Sky King Airport.

Other rescue personnel walked along both sides of the creek, visually scanning the water from the shore.

Aboard one of the Sugar Creek boats, rescuers, each wearing bright orange, cold-water rescue suits, could not get the boat’s outboard motor started after nearly 10 minutes of trying. Darrick Scott, assistant fire chief, had rescuers float alongside the boat to start a search downstream. He later got the motor started.

“We went about a mile or mile and a half down stream and checked all the strainers, and found nothing there,” Scott said when returning to a command site set up along the creek.

Police had issued an emergency message via telephones in the area, asking if any resident had a child missing or if a child had been spotted, to contact police. No reports of a missing child were received by police, said Deputy Chief Greg Ewing of the Sheriff’s Department.

Just after 5 p.m., the search was called off.

Indiana Conservation Officer Lt. Kent Hutchins, who serves as the District 5 commander, said a sheriff’s deputy and a DNR officer re-interviewed the 13-year-old witness after a search was made “and based on that interview, we determined that the facts as previously reported were unsubstantiated and may not have been as previously represented to us.”

Hutchins said people are correct in calling 911 if they see someone in distress.

“Similar to the incident last winter when a lady was driving by on U.S. 40 and saw a guy on the ice and made a 911 call. Unbeknownst to us, the guy got out and was gone before we arrived,” Hutchins said.

“If someone appears to be in distress in the water or elsewhere, it’s never inappropriate to call 911,” he said.

Ewing said he would “rather have a search like this done a thousand times to have it be nothing than that one time it is.”

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.