# Tragedy on Muskingum River!



## JignPig Guide (Aug 3, 2007)

I didn't quite get the whole story. But at Ellis Dam/Lock #11 on the Muskingum River there was/is a serious incident. I saw on WCMH TV that a toddler had drowned and was found. And they are still looking for the toddlers brother who is missing. It sounds like they quickly went to the river without the knowledge of their parents. Oh my! What a life changer.
God bless those boys. And may God bless their family in this time of grief.


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## Duckaholic (Mar 23, 2010)

I fished it last night both found dead. How them parents gonna let a 2 and 3 year old leave the tent. I guessed they were probably doing dusters. Terrible accident.


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## RiverWader (Apr 1, 2006)

If The Parent were sleeping and the Kids got up in the middle of the night they might not of known. They were gone. Anyways Prayers sent to the families of the kids.


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## fishing in kent (Apr 8, 2010)

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...05/son-3-drowns-second-2-missing.html?sid=101

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - A grieving mother returned to her family's campsite along the banks of the Muskingum River last night and tore down the tent from which her two toddler sons wandered away unnoticed early yesterday.

Authorities recovered the body of 3-year-old Ayden Leroy Cecil in the river just before 10:30 a.m., about an hour and half after his mother, 25-year-old Kacey Klein, and her husband, Richard Klein Jr., realized Ayden and his half-brother were missing.

The search for 2-year-old Anthony Joseph Tullius was called off late last night because the high, raging river was too dangerous for divers, said Capt. Jeff LeCocq of the Muskingum County sheriff's office. The area also is too large to search when rescuers have no idea where the younger boy's body might be, he said.

Authorities said they fear that "A.J.," as Anthony was known, also drowned. Search dogs tracked both boys' scents to the water.
The Kleins told authorities they awoke yesterday morning inside their two-person tent at the Muskingum River State Park at Ellis Dam in Muskingum County and realized the two boys were gone, LeCocq said.

The 911 call came in at 8:46 a.m., and a search began immediately.

Ayden's body was found about a mile south of the spillway at the dam and has been sent to the Montgomery County coroner's office for an autopsy.

Late last night, the Kleins had packed up their campsite. They spent the night with relatives.

Going to their Zanesville home, they said, would be too painful.

"I just can't go in. Everything in the house is our kids," said Mr. Klein, 38, the children's stepfather. "Those babies was our lives."

He and his wife sat inside the family's van and cried as they talked about the children. Mr. Klein's shaking hands gripped the steering wheel to steady himself.

Mrs. Klein said that Ayden was a delightful boy who didn't let his cerebral palsy slow him down.

"He did so good," she said. "He could do everything other kids could do."

Knowing that A.J. was still out there in the water was almost too much for them to bear, the couple said. When authorities approached Mr. Klein on the riverbank to tell him they had to call off the search, he collapsed.

LeCocq said that yesterday was about recovery of the boys' bodies, and that much more work needs to be done to figure out how the boys were able to wander away unnoticed.

No authorities, however, were casting blame. Everyone instead was focused on comforting a grieving family.

The area where the Kleins were camping is off a dirt road in a remote area of the park. They had a fun weekend planned, evidenced by the children's fishing poles leaning against a picnic table and the nearby tricycle.

The family's tent was pitched just a few feet from the river's edge, and the boys easily could have walked from it and straight into the water.

However, police dogs traced their scent, which indicated that the boys had left the tent and walked south along a breakwall and the water's edge for probably 500 feet, LeCocq said. It appears that they both went into the water there.

Nine boats searched for A.J., and cadaver dogs were on the boats to assist. Airplanes also were used.

But the river is high, fast and full of debris because of the heavy spring rains, LeCocq said, and it proved too dangerous for rescuers to continue.

They couldn't drag the bottom of the river because of the amount of debris, and the rushing water interfered with divers' breathing equipment.

The search spanned about 15 miles of river between the state park and Duncan Falls, and it concentrated around two spillways.

Even at its worst, the river is an alluring draw, said Jim Lackey, a park visitor who drives from his home in Rawson in northern Ohio to camp and fish here every summer.

"It's so beautiful," he said, "but it's so unforgiving."

The search yesterday was painful for all who had to stand on the banks and simply watch.

"It makes you feel stupid, like your hands are tied and there is nothing you can do to help," Lackey said.

Authorities said that with the strong current, they likely won't search again.

But Lackey and other campers and neighbors of the park said that, with or without the authorities, they will search the waters for A.J. today.

They promised.


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## morning jigger (Apr 22, 2009)

God bless those little boys and their family.. couldnt imagine such a tragedy


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

Doesnt add up to me. I take my 3 yr old camping on the Muskingum and I do not enjoy myself at all. Im a nervous wreck,I have her a lil more away form the river than 10 ft,I put a damn bell on the tent zipper,I have my girl freind stay in the tent with her and I sit/sleep in a chase lounge in fornt the tent door when shes asleep.I just tkae her because she likes it and I want her to experience the fishing and experiences daddy has/does. Let alone I heard they had cerrible paulsy. I dont know if Im just over protective or they were bein careless. Its up for debate/speculation/and proved wrong. I just pray for the boys and hope everything else possible turns out in a positive manner


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## dryer1086 (Oct 9, 2008)

I'm with Joey 209. There are just necessary precautions to take when you take young children on an outdoor adventure of any sort. It's not being over protective. It's just good parenting. Granted anything can happen with children in a blink of an eye. All the more reason to be on guard. God bless the children.


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

Did they ever find the 2nd child? Man this is awful, I couldn't imagine losing one of my kids. My daughter is 7 and my son is 5 and to lose one of them let alone both would totally negate any reason for my existing any further on this earth. My mom lives down river from there just across from McConnellsville and we fish below a lot of those locks and dams from Rockeby all the way down to Devola. I pray they can find the other boy, it's hard to have any sense of comfort or closure with the body still missing. God be with them!


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## jason454ci (Dec 27, 2005)

saugeyesam said:


> Did they ever find the 2nd child?


They are still searching for the body today.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Just reading the first few paragraphs turns my stomach. Didn't read the rest. Not sure how a parent could cope.


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

Yup. I would prolly eat a bullet if I ever lost my daughter. I cant imagine the strength it takes to cope with losing a child. I honestly dont think I could handle it


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Not sure how people do it either. My grandma lost a son when he was 17, another (my dad) when he was 50, and a grandson (my very close cousin) when we were 25, and then my grandpa when he was 94 after close to 70 years of marriage. Then of course many other family members over the years. I think she&#8217;s stronger than most of us.


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## firstflight111 (May 22, 2008)

very sad times prayers sent to the family


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## tjpincadiz (Jul 9, 2005)

Did they ever find the other boy? Thoughts and prayers for the entire family


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## Duckaholic (Mar 23, 2010)

Still no body yet, they said authorities might have to give up at the end of the week. Hope for the very best.


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## puterdude (Jan 27, 2006)

That is indeed a very sad and tragic story all the way around.I hope they find the body soon so the family can have a conclusion for that part & bury the poor child properly soon.Thoughts and prayers for them all.


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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

Man these stories just keep popping up... Makes me sick to my stomach just giving it half a thought. I have a 3 year old Daughter and there is just simply no way this would ever happen to us. I don't let her within 10ft of a bank, nor does she want to be, she is scared of the water. 

If I did goof up to that extreme, after I found out for sure they went into the water, I'd drown in the process of trying to find them, no doubt about it. I wouldn't be able to talk/think/hear about it, no way in hell.


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## JignPig Guide (Aug 3, 2007)

Guilty!

Guilty!

Guilty!

These people camped right next to the river during our wettest year on record!!! They're freakin' guilty! And their sons are dead because of their actions.


http://www.10tv.com/content/stories...ife-found-guilty-in-sons-drowning-deaths.html


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## Josh h (Aug 14, 2011)

I agree with JignPig Guide, what kind of moron would camp next to a high river with small kids.


JignPig Guide said:


> Guilty!
> 
> Guilty!
> 
> ...


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