Lower Deschutes Drowning Victim Recovered
A major search effort Saturday on the lower Deschutes River for a fly fisherman who slipped and was swept away nearly a week ago recovered the Hawaii man?s body about 2 1/2 miles downstream, providing sad closure for family and friends, officials said.
Boats, rafts and airplanes joined ground crews searching in and along the river for Steven Adams, 54, of Lahaina, Hawaii, a native Oregonian from Portland who family members said had returned to the Trout Creek Campground each year for 30 or so years for a gathering with family and friends, even scattering his late wife?s ashes there last fall.
Last Sunday night around 9 p.m., Adams was back on the river to catch fish for dinner when he somehow lost his footing, and fell into the swift current. A major search effort that night and Monday turned, sadly, to a recovery effort as time passed and it became clear he did not survive. Officials said a major search effort would take place again Saturday, and it didn’t take long for the final chapter of the tragedy to play itself out.
Shortly before 10 a.m., BLM rangers who had floated downriver found Adams? body about a half-mile upriver from South Junction, on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation (west) side of the river, said Jefferson County sheriff?s Capt. Marc Heckathorn.
Adams? body was recovered about 2 1/2 miles downstream from where he was last seen, Heckathorn said.
About 40 people were taking part in Saturday?s search, which included two planes, a drift boat from the Jefferson County Sheriff?s Marine Patrol, a raft and drift boat from the sheriff?s Search and Rescue team, an Oregon State Police drift boat, a raft from the BLM and two rafts from Warm Springs Police and Fire and Safety.
Adams? body was taken by boat to the South Junction takeout, then released to Bell-Air Funeral Home in Madras, Heckathorn said.
The captain noted that Adams, in fishing waders at the time of his apparent drowning, was not wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident.
?We remind those recreating along the river to be aware of their surroundings and to wear a personal flotation device,? Heckathorn said in a news release.
