Drowning leads to six-day search for boy

A six-day search for an Amarillo boy who drowned at Greenbelt Lake ended Monday night after his body was discovered by Game Wardens.

Four-year-old Ethan Veale had been missing since he fell off an inflatable water mattress last Wednesday night. Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said preliminary results of an autopsy performed Tuesday in Lubbock confirmed drowning as the cause of Veale’s death.

The accident has local officials reminding everyone of the importance of having lifejackets for children when going to the lake.

“No one has ever drowned in Greenbelt Lake who was wearing a true life preserver,” Blackburn said.

Greenbelt Water Authority requires lifejackets for people on watercrafts, and general manager Bobbie Kidd said there was no way that Veale’s air mattress qualified as a watercraft or as a life preserver. He also urges people to put lifejackets on children when playing near the water and asks people to observe high wind advisories.

Blackburn said Veale’s family had been at Jet Ski Beach between Lakeside Marina and the dam for about 30 or 45 minutes when the boy’s twin brother and seven-year-old sister alerted their mother, Aja Bree Foster, that Veale was on the mattress in the water.

According to statements given to Blackburn’s office, Foster saw the boy floating off and attempted to get him back to shore. She also alerted her boyfriend, Christopher Paul Kindred, who tried to swim to the boy but returned to shore when he could not swim far enough to reach the child.

Blackburn said Kindred went to the marina to try to find someone with a boat and then drove to Sandy Beach to try to find help. At some point, he activated the OnStar system in his car, which put him in touch with the dispatcher in the sheriff’s office at 7:26 p.m.

The sheriff said the National Weather Service reported the wind speed at Greenbelt at that time was 28 mph. It is not clear exactly when Veale fell off the blow-up mattress, but his family thought he was about 120 yards from shore although they were unsure exactly where.

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department’s Dive Team was on the scene by 7:40 p.m. and began diving in the area around the Morning Glory, a concrete structure near the dam. They dove until 1:00 a.m. when they ran out of air. Game wardens ran boats with sonar over the area, and other personnel drove and walked the dam.

“We’ve been spoiled,” Blackburn said Monday. “We’ve been able to find anyone within an hour in the last several years, but we’ve always had better reference points.”

Kidd agreed with that statement.

“Our local dive team has retrieved four bodies in less than an hour,” he said. “They have been really successful.”

Involved in the initial search with the sheriff’s office and fire department were Greenbelt Lake personnel, the Associated Ambulance Authority, the Howardwick Volunteer Fire Department, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Game Wardens.

The DPS brought in a search helicopter the next morning, and the Lake Meredith Underwater Rescue Team also joined the search Thursday. On Friday, Clarendon divers were joined by a DPS dive team from Austin, and divers from the Amarillo Police Department were on the scene over the weekend.

“None of these people could have worked as long or as hard without the support of the Clarendon Firebelles,” Blackburn noted.

Throughout the search, divers were hindered by poor visibility and thick moss that in a few areas was reported to be 20 feet deep, Blackburn said.

“Those state divers were coming up, and you could have filled a bushel basket with the moss that was covering them,” the sheriff said.

Greenbelt officials twice stopped pumping water from the lake – once Wednesday night for the divers’ safety and again Friday so divers could check the area around the intake pipe.

Emergency officials met Sunday night and made the decision to drag the lake, an action which hasn’t been necessary in over 25 years, Blackburn said. Dragging commenced Monday morning and continued through most of the day with the hope that if the drag did not find Veale’s body, it would at least disturb the moss or whatever might be holding him beneath the water’s surface.

At 7:40 p.m. Monday, Game Wardens Gary Hunt and Robert Greenwalt discovered Veale near the dam about 200 feet north of the Morning Glory, Blackburn said.

Justice of the Peace Connie Havens pronounced the boy dead at 8:20 p.m. and ordered the autopsy.

“I’m just glad this is finally over,” Blackburn said.

No charges had been filed in Veale’s death at press time. Blackburn said Monday the case would be turned over to the district attorney when the investigation is complete.

Veale is the 16th person to drown at Greenbelt since it opened in 1968.