Cook County Sheriff Takes Over River Search For Missing Teen
(CBS) -- The Cook County Sheriff's office has taken over the search for a 16-year-old boy who jumped off a railroad bridge into the Des Plaines River with other teenagers over the weekend.
The family of the 16-year-old – who hasn't been seen since Saturday – reportedly was upset when the search for the boy was called off over the weekend.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office has taken over, with more equipment and more manpower than the local searches.
"The Department of Natural Resources is going to give us two boats that have sonar on them that are going to be going up and down the river," Dart said. "And we're also going to be having dogs that we're utilizing, in addition to perimeter searches along the perimeter of the river itself."
A helicopter also will assist in the search.
"They're going to be going up and down the river with different equipment that the helicopter's equipped with - that has a sonar capacity and a FLIR device, which can find heat as well," Dart said.
The sheriff said the Des Plaines River is especially difficult to search.
"There's a lot of underground trees and branches, so it makes it inherently difficult," he tells WBBM's Steve Miller. "And the water itself is so clouded that it was literally all the divers could do was by touch. They couldn't see anything, and the currents were so bad they couldn't be in the water that long either. The currents were taking them away."
Family members identified the missing youth as Cameron Sanders of Villa Park.
Sanders jumped into the river Saturday with a group of friends near Melrose Park.
His family told reporters he couldn't swim, but went in the water because he gave in to peer pressure.
