SACRAMENTO — Grace Joo says her brother, 15-year-old Joshua Joo, was so excited to take a hike along the Cosumnes River off of Bucks Bar Road that he scouted it out the day before.
Joshua stopped on the hike to take in the view from this rock, leaving behind the last photo ever taken of him. Family and friends tell FOX40 he never caught up to the group he went with, and the family now believes he fell into the river.
“His body hasn’t been recovered yet and so that’s the hardest part, not knowing where he is,” Grace told FOX40.
But the family of the missing teen believed to have drowned in the north fork of the Cosumnes River over Memorial Day weekend is frustrated the state and sheriff’s office isn’t doing more to recover his body from the stretch river he went into.
El Dorado County Sheriff dive teams attempted to search the river but had to cancel it, because the Cosumnes River’s high levels are too dangerous. Now, they need the state to release special sonar equipment in order to find josh’s body.
However, the sheriff’s office has told the family, the state is dragging its feet.
“The bottom line is if there is such equipment, then let’s cut through the chase and let us it to try and get Josh back,” family friend James Shin said.
In the meantime, family, friends and even Joshua’s teachers are trying to remember a teen, they say, was special.
“I think it’s safe to say he could have solved all the world’s issues if he had the opportunity to,” Cody Walker, the teen’s agricultural mechanics teacher said.
To help the family with funeral costs, Joshua’s classmates auctioned off one of the many animals he helped raise—Bullseye, the pig—selling him for when Joshua is finally laid to rest.
“We just want to find him. We just want to bring him home,” Gracie said.
It’s unclear which state agency has the sonar equipment the sheriff’s office says it needs, but the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office sent this statement to FOX40 regarding the search:
“We will continue to search the area where we believe the victim is located, but [not] until the water drops and allows divers and searchers to enter the water safely. As of Thursday, the water was still rising.”
