Boy, 11, Drowns in Surging Creek

A day after he disappeared on the way home from school for basketball practice, the body of a Moorpark sixth-grader was found washed up early Thursday on the sandy banks of a rushing drainage channel.

Officials said a motorist spotted the body of Joel Burchfield on the edge of Calleguas Creek on the northern edge of Camarillo, seven miles downstream from his favorite shortcut across the Arroyo Simi in Moorpark.

An autopsy confirmed Thursday afternoon that Joel had drowned.

The slight, blond-haired boy usually got a ride home from a classmate’s mother because he did not like the school bus. He was short for his age, friends and family said, and eighth-grade bullies on the school bus often picked on him.

But on Wednesdays, Joel was supposed to take the bus home from Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark because his driver had to take her son to catechism classes instead. And friends said that Joel usually ducked the bus on Wednesdays and walked home.

That was the case this Wednesday, as millions of gallons of rain surged through the drainage channel and friends said they last saw Joel trudging through the rain.

He was headed toward the place where he usually crossed the channel, at the end of Liberty Bell Road, to avoid an extra half-mile walk to safely cross the Tierra Rejada bridge, they said.

The creek was rising about 3:30 p.m. when Joel disappeared, said county hydrologist Dolores Taylor. Between 4 and 4:30 p.m., the flow nearly doubled in volume to 560 cubic feet per second.

Friend Kyle Colon figures Joel would never be so foolish as to try fording the 70-foot-wide, concrete arroyo, which even in dry weather is lined with slippery green algae.

“I think he’s smarter than that to just step in,” said Kyle, 13. “He probably slipped.”

Joel lived in a close-knit Moorpark neighborhood of young families and sturdy modern homes, a place where new basketball backboards hover over clean two-car driveways and young children play on pristine lawns.

Like Joel, many of the kids who live here play together in Little League or the Moorpark Basketball Assn.

So when word came Wednesday that Joel had disappeared, the neighborhood and his teammates jumped into action.

Kids searched backyards and parking lots. Parents walked door to door, handing out hastily printed posters bearing Joel’s picture.

By nightfall, nearly 100 volunteers had joined Joel’s father, Dan, sheriff’s deputies, Moorpark police volunteers and members of the Disaster Aid Response Team in the search.

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They fanned out in teams, scouring the banks of the arroyo, nearby stores, “any place a boy might be hiding out,” said Sgt. Rodney Mendoza.

At about 2 a.m., searchers found Joel’s empty backpack a mile downstream from the crossing, near Hitch Boulevard, Mendoza said. Flood waters had sucked out his books and homework papers, leaving only a set of house keys in a zippered side pocket.

“It’s so easy to underestimate the rivers,” said Senior Deputy Mike Christensen. “Even adults [who fall in] have a hard time fighting the current.”

After finding the backpack, the civilians quit for the night; but sheriff’s search-and-rescue workers continued floating downstream in a raft until 5 a.m. looking for signs of Joel.

The full search resumed Thursday morning after first light, with two sheriff’s helicopters clattering overhead.

At about 7:30 a.m., a motorist driving down Upland Road spotted something on the sandy bed of the Calleguas Creek near St. John’s Seminary--a small body partially covered with sand and brush. His father rushed to the scene and confirmed: It was Joel.

Friends and neighbors huddled in grief Thursday morning along sidewalks in front of Joel’s house.

Little League officials--many of them looking haggard Thursday morning from the long search and sad news, took a straw poll on the sidewalk and decided that Little League tryouts scheduled Saturday and Sunday for all Moorpark players, ages 7 to 15, would be postponed until Feb. 17 and 18.

Most adults declined to talk with reporters. But one man, who would not give his name, suggested sadly, “Make this your headline: ‘Parents Shouldn’t Bury Their Children.’ ”

A school district psychiatrist herded some of Joel’s young friends into a neighbor’s home at midmorning for grief counseling.

Then, she sent Joel’s friends and basketball teammates out to shoot some hoops, hoping they might vent some of their emotions as they tried to deal with losing a close friend so young.

Friends remembered Joel as a boy with a good sense of humor and a strong interest in sports.

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He was, they said, “an awesome baseball player” with the Reds, his Little League team. He played basketball in the off-season on a team coached by his dad. He was a good skater and dreamed of being a professional Rollerblader when he grew up.

“He was really funny,” said Little League teammate Robbie Jacalone, 11, clustered with friends by the basketball court.

“It’s sad,” said schoolmate Brad Olszowy, 11. “But it doesn’t really seem like he’s gone.”

Joel was popular with his teachers and schoolmates, said Tim Hass, 11, but older students on the bus he sometimes rode Wednesdays would pester him.

“People made fun of him on the bus because he’s not that tall,” he said. “They teased him and stuff.”

As school let out just after 3 p.m. on Thursday, several parents whose children normally rode the bus home came to pick them up instead. Some parents said they had not heard of any bullying on the bus, but were worried only for their children’s emotional well-being in the wake of Joel’s death.

But neighbor Tammy Gelfound said, “My son told me that Joel had been picked on a lot . . . I was worried because my son is also small for his age and he wears glasses so he gets picked on a lot too.”

She said her children had told her that the bigger kids push their way onto the buses first, shoving the smaller ones aside. “They are the last ones to get on, and they’re scared, so they walk,” she said.

But Mary Jane Curry said her only concern is that the buses are often overcrowded, with too many kids forced to sit on the same seat.

Students who rode the bus had mixed reports as well.

While some claimed loudly that no student was ever bullied on the bus, 13-year-old Sean Wade summed it up: “All sixth-graders get picked on.”

And Joel was not the only one who sometimes took the shortcut home across the arroyo.

“It’s cold, it’s like ice in the morning,” said seventh-grader Scott Goodwin, who said he slips his shoes and socks off and wades across most days.

Trevor Brilman agreed that it is common for kids to make the crossing instead of walking all the way to the bridge.

“It takes too long that way. You would have to leave at 5 in the morning to get to school on time,” said Trevor.

Thursday evening, children and parents gathered at the edge of the crossing. The water seemed calm, they said, compared with the rushing, swollen wash of the night before. “I used to see him walk by here all the time,” said Danny Lemus, an 18-year-old Moorpark High School student. “I just came out today to pay my respects for the little kid.”

The Moorpark Basketball Assn. has set up a trust fund in Joel’s name, to help his parents, Dan and Laura, and younger brother, Ryan with whatever they may need, said Roger Willis, an association commissioner.

Donations may be sent to the Joel Burchfield Memorial Fund, c/o Roger Willis, 4498 Forestglen Court, Moorpark, Calif. 93021.

Reed is a Times staff writer and Green is a correspondent. Staff writer Joanna M. Miller and correspondent Andrew Blechman contributed to this report.

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County Rainfall

Rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending at 6 p.m. Thursday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo .08 4.39 7.38 Casitas Dam .12 7.02 12.64 Casitas Rec. Center .28 7.26 12.52 Fillmore .24 4.82 10.21 Matilija Dam .24 8.01 14.12 Moorpark .08 4.71 7.97 Upper Ojai .51 5.64 12.07 Oxnard .08 4.17 7.77 Piru .12 4.50 9.26 Port Hueneme .00 3.25 7.65 Santa Paula .39 4.58 9.45 Simi Valley .04 4.38 7.63 Thousand Oaks .31 5.34 8.21 County Govt. Center .00 5.30 8.60

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