Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance recovered the body of a teen who drowned in the South Santiam River while fishing Thursday evening, Oct. 29.
The teen was 15-year-old Matthew Ryan Van Brocklin, a student at Sweet Home High School.
At 5:05 p.m., the Linn County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call reporting a fisherman in distress floating downstream in the river near Pleasant Valley Bridge, said Sheriff Bruce Riley. Dive teams from the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District and Linn County Sheriff’s Office immediately responded.
Witnesses told deputies that Van Brocklin was fly fishing with a friend just upstream from the Pleasant Valley Bridge when Van Brocklin waded into the river and either fell in or tried to swim across, Riley said. He yelled for help as soon as he went into the water, but witnesses were too far away to help.
Witnesses saw him go underwater and he did not resurface. The Sweet Home Fire Department was able to recover Van Brocklin’s body a short time later, at approximately 7:30 p.m., within 25 feet of where he was last seen.
Van Brocklin was not wearing a flotation device.
The body was taken to Sweet Home Funeral Chapel.
The Sweet Home Police Department assisted.