A growing crowd in Fall City watched Monday afternoon, April 28, as a truck, reported missing since just after midnight, was pulled out of the Snoqualmie River.
No one was found inside the blue-green Ford F150, but the rear window of the cab was broken out, so “We don’t know for sure if there was anyone the the truck or not,” said Fall City Fire Chief Chris Connor.
The truck was registered to a Snoqualmie Valley resident, but police have been unable to contact him. No vehicles or people had been reported missing as of Monday afternoon, and as of Tuesday morning, searches downstream of the truck had not turned up any survivors or bodies.
Two crews from Fall City Fire District participated in the search, which began at 12:03 a.m. Monday, when a witness reported seeing a truck slide into the river. Connor said he and five Fall City crewmen, plus staff from the Snoqualmie and Duvall Fire Departments, Eastside Fire & Rescue and the King County Sheriff’s Office, including a diver, spent about three hours searching the river in boats before calling off the search. There were many reasons for the decision, Connor said, including “The flow of the river, the darkness, and the unlikelihood of finding anyone alive.”
A shoreline search resumed at daylight with a full Fall City crew, plus Duvall, EF&R and KCSO. A firefighter was posted at the top of an extended ladder for a visual search for the truck, reported to be a full-sized pickup truck, possibly parked on the riverside for a full day previous, and possibly dark green. “Which is the same color as the water, unfortunately,” Connor said.
Boats from Fall City, Duvall, and KCSO were back in the water by 10 a.m. Using sonar, they closed in on the location of the truck, about 300 feet downstream from where a witness reported seeing a truck slide into the water. A wide track of crushed blackberry vines marked the truck’s rolling path into the river, which appeared to be slow.
Another diver fought the dangerous current Monday afternoon to help locate and retrieve the truck, which was located mid-afternoon Monday. KCSO will take over the investigation of the incident.
Searchers use an inflatable raft to comb the Snoqualmie.
Onlookers watched and took photos as officials pulled a missing truck from the Snoqualmie River, around 4 p.m. Monday afternoon.
Three search boats comb the Snoqualmie River near Fall City, searching for a truck that vanished into the river Sunday.
Fall City Fire Chief Chris Connor, standing near where the missing truck reportedly slid into the river, watches the search boats on the water.
