Sheriff’s Office, community search flooded Salinas River for missing San Miguel boy
Picking their way along the slippery, muddy banks of the still-raging Salinas River, dozens of community members joined the search Tuesday for the San Miguel boy who was swept away by floodwaters the day before.
Kyle Doan, 5, a kindergartner at Lillian Larsen Elementary School, went missing before 8 a.m. Monday morning after he disappeared into the rushing, muddy waters on the way to school with his mother during the devastating storm that ravaged San Luis Obispo County.
Lindsy Doan, a special education teacher at Lillian Larsen, made it to safety with the help of bystanders, but she was unable to rescue her son.
Although many of those searching the banks of the Salinas didn’t know Kyle personally, they said they were parents or friends of kids at Lillian Larsen.
“I couldn’t just sit at home,” said Cesar Ochoa while standing by the Salinas River on Tuesday afternoon.
“The more eyes the better,” added John Almaguer. “We could find him. There’s some hope out there.”
A woman who said she was Doan’s maternal grandmother, Lynne Yim, was also out searching the riverbanks with two individuals she identified as his brother and sister, Tyler and Melanie Doan.
They’d been searching for Kyle since 8:30 Tuesday morning, Yim said. Their boots were caked with mud, after hours spent searching for solid footholds on the slippery ground.
“It’s comforting to see so many people out here looking,” Yim said. “We’ve come by people we don’t even know. It’s touched our hearts.”
Although the team of three hadn’t discovered any evidence of Kyle by Tuesday afternoon, they kept their hopes alive.
“We’re putting our noses to the ground and going to keep on searching until the sun goes down,” Yim said.
They had good reason: To bring back the boy Yim described as “energetic, happy, optimistic.”
And, a “troublemaker,” interjected Tyler Doan.
They said he had a binder waiting for him at home full of his treasured Pokémon trading cards. He’d recently gotten more cards for Christmas, although he would still complain he needed more cards, Yim added with a slight smile.
Sheriff’s Office resumes search for boy
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office conducted search operations Tuesday afternoon north of most community members.
Deputies and detectives wearing bright orange jackets started their search at the location where the boy and his mother were swept into the floodwaters, about two miles down San Marcos Road off Highway 101.
The winding, two-lane road was still flooded and covered in mud and debris in several spots Tuesday afternoon. It remained too dangerous for members of the public to access farther than about a mile and half from Highway 101.
San Marcos Creek, a tributary of the Salinas River, had reportedly been dry for years during the drought, but Monday’s storm caused it to turn into a roaring river, according to Sheriff’s Office public information officer Tony Cipolla.
The creek remained full to the brim Tuesday afternoon, its swift, brown waters charging down to the Salinas River.
“They were on the way to school. They went across the road, had some water rushing across it from the recent storm. And the car started to be swept away,” Cipolla told The Tribune. “Both the mom and the son exited the vehicle. There were some nearby neighbors that were able to rescue the mom, but the boy floated off in a different direction and was unable to be rescued at that point.”
Cipolla said 15 to 30 members of the Sheriff’s Office participated in the search on Tuesday.
“Yesterday we searched for approximately seven hours using all the resources that we had at our disposal at that time,” Cipolla said. “We are now hoping that with this break in the weather that we can again devote those resources and hopefully we’ll be able to locate him.”
Sheriff’s deputies and detectives ended their search Tuesday evening around dusk.
As the search resumed Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office received mutual aid resources from other local law enforcement agencies — including dive team members, search-and-rescue team members, and K9 units from Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, the agency said in a release.
In addition, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office supplied personnel with sonar equipment to aid in the search, the release said.
“We will search until we find him,” Cipolla said.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 6:00 PM.
