Father’s canoe outing with 3 sons at wildlife refuge north of Tri-Cities turns tragic

A family fishing trip for a father and his three sons north of the Tri-Cities ended Friday with one boy dead, one hospitalized and their father and a third child missing.

The father had taken the boys on a canoe out on one of the seep lakes of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County, Wash. The refuge is about 55 miles north of Pasco.

When they did not return home to Othello that night, other family members went to the refuge to look for them, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

They found the oldest, a 10 year old, on the shore just before 11 p.m. and called rescuers for help.

The boy had made it to shore after the canoe capsized sometime before nightfall, according to the sheriff’s office.

Rescuers recovered the body of the 8 year old boy overnight.

The search resumed about 7:30 a.m. Saturday for the 32-year-old father and a 6 year old boy.

Columbia Basin Dive Rescue was searching the water and a drone was being used to scan the water and the shoreline, according to the sheriff’s office.

The 10 year old was hospitalized for treatment of hypothermia at Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake.

Names were not made public as the search continued.

This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 12:11 PM.