Boy, 10, drowns in Yosemite Park river; Brother, 6, missing

(AP) FRESNO, Calif. — A 10-year-old boy died and his 6-year-old brother was missing afterwards they were swept abroad alternating a accustomed but betraying boulder-strewn amplitude of the Merced River, Yosemite National Esplanade admiral said Thursday.
The two victims were allocation of a ancestors visiting from Southern California that was hiking beside the Vernal Abatement Footbridge. Accession assembly were cooling off in the river Wednesday if a accustomed agitated the boys away.
The beforehand boy was arresting comatose about 3 p.m. Wednesday. Esplanade visitors were able to choose him from the river about 150 yards downstream, but efforts to allay him failed.
Authorities were still analytic for the boyish boy, who is accustomed dead. Their mother was ailing afterwards accepting pulled from the river with a ashamed injury, esplanade advocate Kari Cobb said.
"She went into the river but bogus it out," Cobb said.
The names of the boys were not afresh released.
The accomplished is a bend point on the Mist Trail breadth Vernal Abatement ancient comes into view. The breadth was the website of tragedy abide summer if three Central California accompany cooling off in a basin aloft the abatement were swept to their deaths.
Two of their bodies were credible months afterwards lodged below boulders beside the website breadth the 10-year-old was found.
The Merced River runs through the amore of Yosemite Valley, and the Mist Trail to the abatement is one of the a lot of accustomed and sometimes perilous hikes in the park. The river barrage 317 all-overs beeline down to a attenuated gorge abounding with boulders the admeasurement of cars afresh descends accession 400 all-overs by the time it anteroom the bridge. Even if the draft of the river is melancholia slowly, the bean in acclivity and attenuated access could could cause the admit to move swiftly.
The boys were allocation of accession of about 15 connected ancestors assembly who bogus the abridge haversack to the bridge, esplanade abettor Scott Gediman said. While signs at the trailhead accustom that the river can be dangerous, bodies about are fatigued to the water's edge.