Sean C. Morgan
A Sweet Home High School sophomore drowned Thursday evening while fishing in the South Santiam River.
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District and Linn County Sheriff’s Office recovered the body of Matthew Ryan “Mattie” VanBrocklin, 15, at approximately 7:30 p.m., within about 25 feet of where he had last been seen.
At about 5:05 p.m., Linn County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a fisherman in distress floating downstream in the river near Pleasant Valley bridge. Dive teams from the fire district and Sheriff’s Office responded.
Witnesses told Linn County deputies that Mattie was fly fishing with a friend just upstream from the Pleasant Valley Bridge when Mattie waded into the river and either fell in or tried to swim across, Sheriff Bruce Riley said. He yelled for help as soon as he went into the water, but witnesses were too far away to assist him.
Witnesses saw him go under water and he did not resurface.
Mattie was not wearing a flotation device.
The body was taken to Sweet Home Funeral Chapel.
The Sweet Home Police Department assisted.
Mattie VanBrocklin was the grandson of Gerold VanBrocklin, who was raising him.
“He came home that day from school,” VanBrocklin said. “I was out in the garage. He said, ‘Can I go fishing for a little bit?’ He hugged me, told me he loved me and left.”
The two had moved to Sweet Home from Cottage Grove in mid-August after VanBrocklin married Juanita Hall.
VanBrocklin said he doesn’t believe his grandson tried to swim across the river. Mattie was fly fishing, and his grandfather believes he slipped into a drop-off and went under.
He said he was surprised by Facebook posts about Mattie.
“I never knew, for just 15, he touched so many lives in Cottage Grove,” VanBrocklin said. “I had no idea.”
But he was that kind of kid, he said. “He was the type of kid every parent wants their kid to be with.”
He would counsel other children who might be making bad choices, he said. He was the kind of kid who would get up to open a door for someone in a wheelchair or an elderly couple in a restaurant.
“I never had to tell him stuff like that,” VanBrocklin said. Other children and teachers have been calling VanBrocklin, telling him how wonderful Mattie was.
“It’s been overwhelming,” VanBrocklin said. “He’s one of a kind. He could make friends with anybody and everybody.”
VanBrocklin recalled a camping trip when a woman came up to him to compliment him about Mattie, who had just helped her son, a total stranger, catch his first fish.
He was also level-headed, VanBrocklin said. “If you talk to Mattie, he would listen and put things together.”
Most of the time, he would go to his room, think about it, come back out and talk about what he could have done differently, VanBrocklin said.
Mattie grew up camping, fishing and hunting, VanBrocklin said. “His interests were basically hunting and fishing all summer long. Every day was fishing. When he could go hunting in the winter, he was hunting.”
VanBrocklin took him in at age 11 months.
“We camped and fished and hunted,” VanBrocklin said. “I never hunted till my son Mike (28 years old) turned 12.”
He wanted to go hunting, so VanBrocklin took up hunting too. When he took custody of Mattie, he would put him in his car seat, and they would go hunting.
He believes it made a difference in VanBrocklin’s life and the lives of those around him.
“Kids would be having a hard time, and he’d say, I’m going to go to the ponds and go fishing,” VanBrocklin said. They would tell him they didn’t have a pole. He would go get one and tell them to take his.
“He’s amazing,” VanBrocklin said.