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closeThursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Hanford grad presumed drowned in Colorado River
By the Denver Post and Herald staff
Tracking dogs and more than 20 people, including search-and-rescue teams searched a 2-mile stretch of the Colorado River for three days, looking for a former Tri-Citian who fell out of a raft Saturday.
Eric M. Kophs, 42, who graduated from Hanford High School in 1985, is presumed drowned after falling from the fishing raft while with a friend, reported the Denver Post.
"I believe if he was on the surface or on land, we would have found him," Grand County Sheriff Rodney Johnson told the Post. "We don't believe he is on the surface of the water."
The federal Bureau of Land Management, which routinely sends personnel to patrol the river on weekends, will continue looking for Kophs' body on Friday as they perform their regular duties.
Although Kophs was an experienced outdoorsman, authorities said he was not wearing a life preserver and had a pair of fishing waders on, said the Post.
"He was an avid outdoorsman and loved every minute of it," a family member, who asked that her name not be used, told the Herald on Wednesday.
After graduating from high school, Kophs played baseball for Eastern Washington University, where he received his degree in education and where he met his wife, Tiffany.
After teaching in Central Kitsap and Lake Washington school districts, Kophs, his wife and son Ryan moved to Denver in 1995 to teach for the Cherry Creek School District in Aurora, Colo.
"Every part of the Cherry Creek School District is brokenhearted at this time," Superintendent Mary Chesley said in an announcement on the district's website.
On a Facebook post to a high school friend, Kophs wrote, "I'm grateful for the education, experiences and friendships forged at Hanford High and I look forward to seeing friends and classmates at the (25-year) reunion."
"Everybody Eric met was a friend," said the family member.
A memorial service will be held next week in Aurora. Kophs still has family in the Tri-Cities.
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