Extensive searches find boy, skier unhurt

An 8-year-old boy missing in Peabody and a jet skier missing at Marion Reservoir both were found unharmed after extensive searches Saturday.

At 11:16 a.m., Peabody police called for sheriff’s deputies, Peabody firefighters, the county emergency manager, and a police dog to aid in a search for the missing boy, last seen near City Park.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway crews also were alerted and at one point thought they had seen the boy along railroad tracks.

Great Plains Search and Rescue K9s and numerous volunteers also helped search for the boy.

Just before Hillsboro ambulance and Hillsboro firefighters with a drone arrived to join the search, a citizen found the boy at 1:32 p.m. near the home of a relative near Olive and 3rd Sts.

Uninjured, he was turned over to a parent.

Then, at 8:15 p.m., sheriff’s deputies and reservoir rangers called for Hillsboro firefighters to bring water rescue crafts to Cottonwood Point at Marion Reservoir, where a jet skier had not been seen in more than an hour.

What initially was thought to be an overturned jet ski was discovered 20 minutes later by a deputy on the other side of the reservoir, between French Creek Cove and Hillsboro Cove.

An hour after the search began, the missing skier and his jet ski were picked up at 9:17 p.m. by one of the rescue boats near French Creek Cove.

A call from Sheriff Jeff Soyez for Florence firefighters to join the search was canceled.