The Elmore County Sheriff’s Office says the body of a rafter has been recovered from the South Fork of the Boise River at Buffalo Rapids.
Late last month, witnesses reported that a man on a raft with his son was attempting to negotiate the rapids. The raft overturned and floated downstream. The son was able to swim to safety but the man –- later identified as Richard Arave -- never surfaced.
On June 28th, rescue personnel located Arave’s body in a swift area of the river.
“The remains had been tangled in a log in the rapids. The water level was covering the remains and they could not be seen until the flow was dropped under 1,000 cubic feet per second,” Sheriff Rick Layher said in a news release. “Even at the lower flow rate, the recovery required the assistance of a specialist in whitewater recovery.”
Elmore County Search and Rescue volunteers and whitewater salvage expert Mark Angel helped the Sheriff’s Office in the recovery.
Arave’s body was taken to Neal Bridge by raft, and then transported to the Elmore County Coroner’s Office.
Layher said the recovery was “difficult, and only possible with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation lowering the flow from the Anderson Ranch Dam and getting rescue/recovery personnel to the area by raft at the right time when the flow rate reached the lowest point, rigging rope lines for safety and removing the victim from the hazard.”
