SEARCH ENDS IN TRAGEDY; VOLUNTEERS CRY AS BODY OF BOY FOUND

MARBLE HILL -- A 5-year-old boy swept away in a flash flood was found dead Tuesday following a two-day search involving hundreds of rescue workers.

Hopes of finding Austin Chandler alive were dashed just after 3:30 p.m., when his body was found pinned beneath a cluster of logs jammed in a bottleneck of Crooked Creek, just southeast of Marble Hill.

"Everybody was hoping for a miracle, but it didn't happen," Gerald Macke of Leopold, one of the rescue workers, said as tears welled up in his eyes upon hearing that the boy's body had been found.

Macke was one of hundreds of volunteers who had searched for the boy since Monday morning.

"It's a tragedy," said Terry Arnzen, whose mobile home sets about a half-mile from the creek and is near where a command post had been set up. Arnzen said the creek water tends to rise rapidly in heavy rains and an undercurrent makes the creek more dangerous.

"Knowing this creek as swift as it gets a full grown man can't swim in it," she said.

Austin was found about four miles downstream from where he and his father, Steve Chandler and step-mother, Julie Chandler, were camping Sunday night.

When thunderstorms began, the three had climbed on top of their pick-up truck to escape fast-rising water.

At about midnight, a floating log struck the truck, and the three were thrown into the creek. Steve Chandler tried to drag his son to safety, but was pulled under water and lost his grip on the boy, authorities said.

Steve and Julie Chandler were able to climb to safety after several hours of being trapped in the creek, hanging on to tree branches.

On Monday, nearly 200 people searched for the boy on foot, in boats and on horseback. Helicopters also combed the wooded area.

The first trace of the boy turned up just after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when rescuers found a child's life jacket caught in a cluster of logs.

Austin's body was found about an hour later hidden in the same log jam. Authorities said the first life jacket was apparently an extra one that had been in the truck, and Austin's life jacket was still secured to his body.

The boy was found submerged in about five feet of water and was hidden by logs and murky water, said Bollinger County Sheriff Dan Mesey. Rescuers had to remove one log at a time to pull him out.

Friends of the family said the boy didn't know how to swim.

Jim. D. Bollinger, the county's deputy coroner, said the boy drowned sometime Sunday night, probably shortly after he was swept into the creek.

Mesey said the area where the Chandlers camped is where Crooked Creek meets Hurricane Creek. He said water tends to rise very rapidly where the creeks converge.

Crooked creek runs to the Diversion Channel and into the Mississippi River.

Throughout the two-day search, rescue workers set up a mini-camp where volunteers provided food and water. It also served as a command post for rescuers. About 50 people were gathered at the camp when authorities radioed that the boy had been found.

Ernest Darr, a resident of Marble Hill who was at the camp, said the tragedy had united the small town. He said hopes were high Monday that the boy would be found alive.

"After (Monday), the percentage was really low that he would be found alive," Darr said. "This has been quite an ordeal for everyone."

Darr said activity had nearly stopped in the town as everyone waited and hoped for the boy's survival.

"Not knowing that was the hardest part," Darr said.

Mesey said the creek was still swollen from Sunday's rain. He described the creek as "violent" when it floods.

"We had all hoped for the best," the sheriff said.

Steve Chandler told authorities that after Austin was swept away Sunday night, he was able to make it to shore. Julie Chandler had grabbed on to a tree branch and was able to hang on until her husband helped her to safety.

The two looked for Austin and then roamed nearby woods until they found a farm house and called the sheriff's department, Mesey said.

The sheriff said rescuers concentrated their efforts on a four-mile stretch of the creek between the log jam and where the boy had been thrown into the water.

The Sheriff's Department was aided in the search by the Missouri Water Patrol, Civil Defense, the National Guard and volunteers.

The boy's body was taken to the Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill.