TX-27 yr old man missing after searching for a missing teen

[dimples37398]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5737435

The Coast Guard is searching for a 27-year-old man who disappeared around 6:45pm Wednesday. Family members called the Orange County Police Department to report Craig Phelps was missing.

Phelps and his three-year-old son had joined in the search for Roger Frank, 18. Frank has been missing in the Sabine River since Tuesday when he was canoeing with friends.

After Phelps failed to return Wednesday night, a family member went looking for him and found his truck at the I-10 boat ramp on the Sabine River. The family member conducted a search and found the 3-year-old boy in the boat on the east bank of the Sabine River. (poor baby)
The Orange County Sheriff's department launched its boat crew, and the Coast Guard launched a helicopter crew from Air Station Houston and a rescue boat crew from Station Sabine to search for Phelps.

The rescue helicopter crew searched for approximately 45 minutes before heavy fog and dangerous conditions forced it to return. The rescue boat crews continued to search for a few more hours before heavy fog and darkness forced them to suspend the search for the night.

The search was resumed at dawn. Units involved in the search include a rescue helicopter crew from Air Station Houston, a rescue boat crews from Station Sabine and the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Bolded sentence I was just pointing out part of the article....then parenthesis are my comment.......
I hope I did this rigth.......first article I have posted......
Kel

[mysteriew]

You did perfect Dimples.

That is so sad. He was out searching for someone else lost, and goes missing himself. I wonder why he took his three year old with him though?

[dimples37398]

I was wondering the same thing mysteriew.........why would he take his 3 yr old......

Either way thank you god that the 3 yr old just stayed put in that boat till he was found.......it could have turned out so much worse....I am very surprised that whatever happened to his father he just sit there and didn't try to go in after daddy. He had to be so scared sitting there in the boat for however long he was in the boat and it dark outside..........

maybe a very well meaning dad......but definately not the most responsible thing to do.....people sometimes just think ......it can't happen to them.....but everyone should always think of the worst thing that could happen before bringing their little ones along for the ride.........

Kel

[teedie2]

Here is a more local link:

http://tinyurl.com/35xtu6

The Beaumont Enterprise

Treacherous Sabine River torments two families
By: MIKE D. SMITH, The Enterprise
11/02/2007

ORANGE - Two families - strangers before two tragic events this week - face another day united by similar unanswered questions as searchers scan the Sabine River for their loved ones.

Search for missing men continues

Authorities plan to resume their search for Roger Frank, 18, who vanished when his canoe tipped in the river on Tuesday and Craig Phelps, 27, who disappeared Wednesday when he volunteered to look for Frank.

Related tragedies

Frank was heading in the right direction, his cousin, Felicia Washington, said.

The Orange 11th-grader was in a work-credit program - attending school part of the day and working at a local restaurant - who always had time for his 7-year-old adopted sister and Washington's two sons.

"He liked fishing," she said. "He wasn't really a good swimmer, but he liked the water - period."

On Tuesday, Frank was canoeing with three others when the wake from a nearby boat tipped their canoes, according to U.S. Coast Guard reports.

The others resurfaced, but Frank, who wasn't wearing a life jacket, surfaced before sinking again, reports show.

Frank's family continues to watch and pray at the Orange Boat Ramp for any word while officials and volunteers search for him, Washington said.

One volunteer, Craig Phelps, first tried to help with the search by launching from the Orange Boat Ramp on Wednesday but was turned away, Phelps' cousin, Christie Gaspard, said.

Phelps told his mother about 11:30 a.m. that day that he would launch from the Interstate 10 boat ramp. When he didn't return by evening, his parents went to the launch and found Phelps' son, Kenneth, 3, crying and alone in the boat on the Louisiana side of the river, she said.

Gaspard said Phelps might have tried to tinker with the motor. A gas line was loose, and gasoline had filled the boat to the point that the toddler's legs developed a rash, she said.

The toddler speaks of what happened using phrases such as "Daddy went into the water" and "Daddy was by the trees," she said.

"We're pretty certain we've lost him, but for selfish reasons we don't want to give up," Gaspard said amid a cluster of family and friends facing the river in lawn chairs as searchers floated past.

< snip >

Much more at above link, for as long as the BE leaves it there, that is.

This is so sad, but it's good that the little boy is still with us.

[SeriouslySearching]

How horrible!! It is hard to believe he took his 3yo to search with him! I am glad he is OK physically, but tragically, it sounds like he had to witness his father's death tho. So sad.

This is why it is so important people don't search on their own for the missing after being "turned away". His heart was in the right place, but now they have to find two people. Obviously, the river was running very swift and was very dangerous.

[Taximom]

I remember people bringing their little children when looking for Jessie Davis! I couldn't believe it. I would have helped but I have kids and wouldn't want them seeing a dead body.

I wonder if this guy just got overwhelmed by the fumes. How horrible for this little boy. :(

[dark_shadows]

This is tragic.
Two bodies were recovered saturday.
More at link;
link (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5272560.html)
Authorities believe a body found in the Sabine River on Saturday is that of 18-year-old Roger Frank, who vanished after his canoe tipped over on Tuesday.
Louisiana authorities are working to confirm whether an early Saturday discovery has brought an Orange family's agonizing wait to an end.
Searchers with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries retrieved a body from the Sabine River near the Calcasieu Parish shore in the area where 18-year-old Roger Frank's canoe overturned on Tuesday, an Orange County Sheriff's Office press release states.

Respectfully,
dark_shadows

[TGIRecovered]

from the article DarkShadows posted:


Authorities found Phelps' body on Friday. Phelps' family members said the young husband and father was helping search for Frank.




Did he drown too? The article doesn't say if he was in the river or near it, or the apparent cause of death. Awfully strange if he went in the water but the child was safe in the boat.

Thank you for finding the article, DS.

Susan

[teedie2]

This article is heartbreaking. There is more, of course, at the link, enough to make you weep.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5264379.html

ORANGE — High-pitched screams on Halloween night led investigators to a soaking wet 3-year-old boy, who had been stranded for possibly hours in an aluminum boat stuck in the mud in the Sabine River.

The child, Kenneth Phelps of Orange, told rescuers, "My Daddy fell in the water." After that his explanations became confused.

The boy, who was wearing a life jacket, could give no clue as to why he was drenched or the whereabouts of his missing father, Craig Phelps. Authorities said Phelps, 27, a yard worker, had earlier been turned down when he offered to help search for 18-year-old Roger Frank of Orange, who vanished in the same river on Tuesday.

Frank was last seen sinking below the water's surface about 1½ miles south of where Phelps launched his boat.

"Now we're looking for two possible drowning victims," Rod Ousley, Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesman, said Thursday.

Orange County Sheriff Mike White said Phelps had apparently not wanted to disappoint his 3-year-old son and decided to take him for a boat ride upstream from the search site.

< snip >


Darn copyrights, anyway!

The article goes on to say that Phelps had two more toddlers at home. The child in the boat was terrified, alone in the dark in the boat.

[UM&AMWfan]

But if the river was so treacherous then HOW did Phelps end up in the water? Shouldn't he habe been in the boat with his kid??

Whenever I hear Orange County I think of Cali. So, there's an Orange county in Texas too?

[MeoW333]

Now these two families are united through the Lord...

[teedie2]

But if the river was so treacherous then HOW did Phelps end up in the water? Shouldn't he habe been in the boat with his kid??

Whenever I hear Orange County I think of Cali. So, there's an Orange county in Texas too?

fan, he was in the boat with his kid. He fell out.