‘Everybody shares in the tragedy’ of young boy swept down river
Police seek to bring closure to Kaden Young’s family as search for body continues
The same word is used over and over to describe what happened to Kaden Young, the 3-year-old boy swept down the Grand River and presumed dead.
It’s everyone’s worst nightmare, says the grocery store owner. It’s a nightmare, says the librarian. Nightmare, says the baker.
Each one has interacted with Kaden or his family in some way in this small town of Grand Valley (population: 2,956) near Orangeville.
“It’s tough,” said Paul Nancekivell, the Ontario Provincial Police constable on scene. “It’s small towns, where everybody knows everybody. Everybody then shares in the tragedy because it’s such a close-knit community.”
Flying in a helicopter close to the treetops, OPP officers were exploring the river banks through a powerful camera lens, looking to spot the little boy in a blue winter coat.
This is Day 2 of the search — an ordeal that has traumatized everyone here.
“It’s difficult for first responders because a lot of us live around this area,” he said. “We get know these people on a day-to-day basis . . . not just stopping them for tickets, but our kids play hockey with them.”
On Wednesday, at 12:52 a.m., Michelle Hanson was driving back from Grand Valley along Tenth Line roadway in Dufferin County with her son Kaden. She left home to get cigarettes, she told police.
The river was rising tremendously on the rainy, foggy night. The water was collecting almost two metres above the road, partially submerging tree trunks and mail boxes lining the street.
Hanson drove past a road-closure sign marked by the orange pylons in the fog, according to police, and got stuck in the forceful waters. She tried to back up, but the current caught her blue-grey Kia Sedona, dragging the van into the river, police said.
Somehow, she managed to get out of the vehicle with her son. But a wave of water then hit the mother and son, and the boy slipped from her hands, according to police.
Hanson was screaming when the Grand Valley fire department rescued her at the bridge hovering over the river, Nancekivell said. She has since left hospital and gone home, still suffering from shock and hypothermia.
Nancekivell believes the boy is somewhere near where the van went in and the ice-chunk-filled Bellwood Lake, 15 kilometres southeast. The river to the lake is huge, he said, with bends, rocky banks and trees.
“There’s a sewer grate across the dam (at the lake),” Nancekivell said. “We’re thinking he’s somewhere between here and that grate. He wouldn’t be able to float further south, because the Grand River goes way down to Kitchener.”
Twenty-five officers are on the ground, 15 actively part of the onground search party, armed with long sticks to poke and prod the banks.
A fresh crop of searchers replaced those who have been on duty since Wednesday evening.
A dive team was on site Wednesday to pull out the van and make sure no one was there. It was towed away Thursday morning to the OPP station to be processed by the forensic identification unit and commercial motor vehicle inspectors. Police don’t believe there were any mechanical defects in the vehicle, but want to make sure.
Nancekivell recalled the boy’s grandfather’s words to him: “I shouldn’t be burying my 3-year-old grandson,” he told the officer.
“And that’s the whole truth,” Nancekivell said. “At 65 years old, he’s supposed to be enjoying time with that kid. Playing hockey. Taking him to baseball games.”
Kaden’s family — his grandparents, his relatives from Ottawa — are leading their own search near Bellwood Lake, trying to reach the areas the police haven’t covered yet.
Kaden’s mom is heavily sedated, Nancekivell said, still in shock.
“The hardest part is waiting. When are we going to find him? I don’t know,” Nancekivell said. “It’s frustrating. As morbid as it is to find a 3-year-old boy passed away, I have to look at the more positive side. We want to bring closure to that family.
“It’s a chapter that has to be closed.”