Authorities are still searching for a Utah teenager who went missing while swimming in the Teton River near Newdale, while multiple drownings have been reported in other areas of the state.
Search and rescue crews from multiple counties have been looking for 14-year-old Justin Keith Grass, of Sandy, Utah. Grass was swimming with two friends near the old Teton Dam on Sunday afternoon when he disappeared.
According to crews at the scene, the three boys were attempting to cross the river. Grass was reportedly caught in a strong current and couldn’t get to shore.
Search and rescue crews will continue the search on Wednesday.
There have been multiple drownings reported across the state over the past week.
A 13-year-old boy drowned Friday after he was pinned underneath an ATV in a canal near Burley.
Cassia County sheriff deputies were sent to 450 E. 250 S. at 5:30 p.m. in response to a 911 call saying the sister of the boy found him in the ditch underneath a 4-wheeler, according to a Cassia County sheriff’s report.
Cassia County Undersheriff George Warrell said the boy, Jared Stanley Zollinger, died after he lost control of the vehicle on a canal road and landed in a ditch that was half-full of water.
“He was eastbound on the canal bank and he lost control at a curve and overturned it in the ditch. He was pinned underneath it,” Warrell said.
The boy’s father, an emergency medical technician, was at the scene performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on him when officers arrived, according to the report.
The boy had left his residence about 4:20 p.m. When he did not return in about 15 to 20 minutes, family members started looking for him.
The boy’s sister had been out driving eastbound and found the crash.
Warrell said the boy had been wearing a helmet.
In a separate incident near Kuna, a 21-month-old boy died after he was found in a canal earlier this week.
According to the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, Spencer Arnold, of Woods Cross, Utah, was reported missing early Monday morning and a search commenced to find him
The child was soon found in the Mora Canal near the house. Investigators say the toddler was playing in a fenced yard with other children but somehow got out of the yard and fell into the canal.
Emergency responders pulled him out of the water and took him to a Nampa hospital by ambulance. The child was later pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the incident as a drowning.
Lisa Dayley Smith with the Rexburg Standard Journal and Laurie Welch with the Times-News contributed to this article.
