Search Resumes For Young Boy In Cimarron River

An all-out search for a child in the Cimarron River in Kingfisher County resumed Sunday. The young boy jumped into the water Saturday near Dover and hasn't been seen since.

Kingfisher County Sheriff Dennis Banther said the 5-year-old boy was spending the 4th of July holiday with his family along the bank of the Cimarron River when he went under the water around 5 o’clock and never resurfaced.

“We try to keep people out as much as possible,” Banther said about the river.

He said the reason why is due to what lurks underneath the assumed calm waters.

“You can throw an empty bottle on top of the current and you'll see it barely move, but once you get down deeper in the water, the current is actually kind of swift,” he said. “It's deceiving because as you jump in, it will sweep you away.”

And that’s what he believes happened to the young boy, when he jumped in and then disappeared in the river under the bridge on Highway 81 between Kingfisher and Dover.

7/5/2015 Related Story: Authorities Search For Missing 5-Year-Old Boy In Cimarron River

“It's always difficult when you're working with a child,” Banther said. “But it's just the nature of the job, something we have to do but it's not something we want to do.”

Crews with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Dover Fire Department are assisting the Kingfisher County Sheriff’s Department with the search. OHP is using its sonar technology, boats and divers to scour every inch of the water. For now, they are concentrating on the area under the bridge and just east of where he went in.

“It makes it difficult for our divers as well,” Banther said. “With all the piers coming down from the bridge in, the current will naturally circle around those piers and the current will move in different directions on you.”

Sunday, crew also put in several cattle panels, a type of fencing, to help in the recovery of the child. Crews will remain searching until dusk and then resume again at daybreak Monday, if necessary.