Wilton Teen Likely Drowned in Idaho Kayaking Accident (Updated 7/5/2011)

Update: 4:37 p.m. 7/5:

Lt. Daniel Smith of the Valley County Idaho Police Department told Patch that they still have not recovered Forster's body.

"We've lost three to four people in the last 10 years in that stretch" said Smith, reffering to the Payette River where Forster had drowned. 

Smith said the rivers are swollen due to snow packs just melting off of and around the nearby mountains in the past month. The Payette is still rushing at three-to-four times its normal flow, even higher than it was when Forster disappeared last Tuesday, and the river's  many crags and boulders are making it impossible to search for the teenager's body, said Smith. 

Smith said that they are presuming Forster dead due to eye witness accounts. One of Forster's friends, who was kayaking with him at the time, saw him get sucked into the rapids, the Villager reported last week.

"We're basically watching the river every day until the water flow goes down," said Smith.

"Idaho's had a tough year this year," he said, explaining that nine or 10 people have been killed or have gone missing in rapids throughout the state.

Smith said that the recent snow melting was due to a "late season this year" and that there were still "five to six feet" of snow melting off the taller mountains. He said that "two to six weeks ago" there was "10-15 feet" of snow that, as it melted, caused fast-moving rivers and swollen reservoirs throughout the town of Cascade and Valley County, Idaho.

Smith said that adjacent Boise County is also on the look out for a body. Smith said that as recently as "last week," a woman had gone missing a few miles north of Valley County and is also believed to have drowned. He said that her body has also not been recovered.

Update 5:09 p.m., 7/1: While it has not yet been reported that Forster's body has been found, the Villager reports that one of his friends saw him carried away by the rapids. 

The Villager also reports that Forster attended Witon High School for two years before transferring to a school in West Virginia. 

Original story

Nineteen year-old Stephen Forster, a Wilton resident, has likely died in an Idaho kayaking accident, reports the Wilton Villager after speaking with Idaho officials. 

Forster is believed to have drowned after hitting an onslaught of rapids in the Payette River; Idaho police have recovered his damaged kayak, paddles and life vest, but the water is too high and tumultuous to search for his body, according to the Villager. 

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