Berkeley Man And Son, 10, ID'd As Victims After Raft Flips In WA

BERKELEY, CA — A Berkeley father and his 10-year-old son were identified as the victims who died last week when a commercial raft in which they rode flipped in river rapids in northern Washington near the Canadian border, authorities said.

The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office told The Bellingham Herald in an email Tuesday that John Coleman, 51, of Berkeley, and his son, whose name was not released, were the people who died. Both wore wetsuits, helmets and life jackets.

As Washington Patch previously reported, two female and two male passengers and a guide were rafting on the afternoon of June 14 in rapids near the Snowline neighborhood in Glacier when the raft flipped.

The unidentified guide rescued the two female people, but the two male people were swept downstream on the north fork of the Nooksack River. Kayakers with local fire crews later found a boy about four hours later submerged in a logjam. He was about a half mile from where the raft flipped.

Border patrol units with a helicopter found a man's body downriver on the following day, just west of Glacier.