Body of Boy Lost in Creek Is Found

A body found floating in San Antonio Reservoir near Upland on Thursday was identified as that of 11-year-old Marcelo Bautista, who was swept away nearly three weeks ago in treacherous mountain waters swollen from last month’s storms, authorities said.

The body was spotted about 10 a.m. by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s helicopter unit combing the area for the boy, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Deputy Tania Plunkett.

The Los Angeles County coroner and Marcelo’s parents, of Huntington Park, were at the recovery scene, at the reservoir’s northeastern shore, said Sgt. Larry Wineinger, supervisor of an L.A. County rescue team based in San Dimas. The boy’s parents had been visiting the area daily since Marcelo’s disappearance, Wineinger said.

Marcelo fell into San Antonio Creek below Mt. Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains on Jan. 16 while playing on its banks with his 14-year-old cousin during a family picnic. They fell into the frigid, fast-moving water, and Marcelo’s father, Marcelo Bautista Sr., leapt in to save them. He pulled the cousin to safety, but his son slipped from his grasp and was carried downstream, authorities said. Bautista was also briefly swept up by the current but was slowed by vegetation and eventually freed himself.

“The river was just raging,” Wineinger said.

The search effort, which included divers, sonar equipment and cadaver dogs, was scaled back Jan. 22, hampered by high water and sediment levels and swift currents. Marcelo’s body was found more than a mile downstream from where he tumbled into the creek.

The Army Corps of Engineers release of water from the reservoir -- currently about 40 feet deep but normally dry -- this week at the Sheriff Department’s request probably aided the search, said hydraulic engineer Melvin Meneses.

The boy was one of three people who disappeared last month into the rushing waters of the creek in the San Gabriel Mountains. A 35-year-old El Monte woman and her 7-year-old son drowned in the creek; their bodies were found Jan. 18.