Urgent hunt for California brothers who vanished while duck hunting over a week ago

Search teams in California have been tirelessly searching for two teenage brothers who went missing while duck hunting.

Andruw and Wesley Cornett, 19 and 17, were last seen near the Thermalito Afterbay in Butte County on the morning of December 14 – the same day high winds and heavy rain left 5,000 people in Butte County without power to sit. Action news now reported.

April Clark, the teens’ mother, described the moments leading up to their disappearance.

Clark wrote in one GoFundMe reports that Wesley took a kayak into the water to catch a duck, but problems arose when the boat capsized.

Andruw called 911 and said there was “no time to wait, he was going to save his brother,” she explained.

Neither has been seen since.

“The sheriff says this is now a search and recovery, so I’ll also have to make plans to put my two boys to rest,” Clark stated.

During the initial search, the brothers’ belongings and puppy were recovered from the scene. KRCR reported.

Wesley went into the water on a kayak to catch a duck and his brother reportedly went to rescue him when the kayak capsized

Search teams have been scouring the water for more than a week since they disappeared

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) wrote Saturday, “Approximately 250 people from 21 different organizations have been searching for Wesley and Andruw Cornett since last Saturday, the day the two brothers went missing while duck hunting at the Thermalito Afterbay.”

But the ongoing search efforts, conducted by officers, detectives, the BCSO Aviation and Marine Unit and BCSO Search and Rescue, have been a challenge.

In a video posted Saturday documenting these search efforts, Jeff Eggleson of Big Valley Divers said, “The hardest thing we have is getting through the weeds.

“We have the culvert on the bottom, it’s in about 15 feet of water and the weeds range from about 3 feet to about 10 feet of weeds.

“So the hardest part is getting through that.”

He added that these weeds also hinder the effectiveness of the Sound Navigation and Ranging (Sonar) technology, which could help locate the teenagers.

Eggleson highlighted another obstacle: the poor visibility of the water.

“The visibility is very low, so it ranges from about fifteen to about four, five, six feet.”

Hundreds of people from 21 different organizations came to help search for the brothers

Brother’s devastated mother said she will ‘also have to make plans to put my two boys to rest’

According to their Facebook page, they have sent boats into the water several times.

The community rallies behind the heartbroken mother. People apparently called the sheriff’s office to ask if they could volunteer to look for Andruw and Wesley.

“Please DO NOT call our dispatch with questions about volunteering to help,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Dec. 17.

“We appreciate it, but we are not asking for any assistance from the public at this time.”

However, circumstances have changed since then.

According to a video posted to Facebook yesterday, the teens’ parents are asking for volunteers to continue the search while law enforcement agencies complete their efforts.

Non-profit search team member Angels Recovery Jared Foster said, “Here we are, going into the holidays and we’re still looking for their two sons.

Jared Foster and the brother’s parents urged volunteers to keep the search going even as law enforcement agencies have to stop

April Clark said the ‘freak accident’ that left her sons missing has shocked her entire family

“Volunteer divers are continuing, so if you’re in this area or close by and you have a boat with sonar and camera equipment, if you’re a diver, we need more people on the water.”

“This is a freak accident that my family and I are trying to wrap our heads around,” Clark wrote.

She added that a Toyota Amphitheater where her two sons worked pledged to match the amount raised by the GoFundMe page. To date, Clark has received nearly $23,000.