SCOTTOWN – A search that brought hundreds of Windsor Township residents and county emergency workers together this week to help an 11-year-old boy ended in tragedy Thursday morning.

Friday, July 14, 2000

SCOTTOWN – A search that brought hundreds of Windsor Township residents and county emergency workers together this week to help an 11-year-old boy ended in tragedy Thursday morning.

Searchers removed Roger Ray Rucker from Indian Guyan Creek, where he drowned Tuesday in rainswollen waters.

"He and another boy were riding their bicycles on County Road 67," said Don Christian, chief of Windsor Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Severe rains Monday had pushed the creek out of its banks and the water was over the road where the boys stopped to play near the old covered bridge, Christian said.

"Originally, where they were, they were OK," he said. "They were just being boys playing in shallow water. They ended up at a 12-foot embankment, but you couldn’t tell where it was because the water was so high."

Rucker slipped into the high water, and a 25- to 30-mile-per-hour current swept him away, Christian said.

Lawrence County 911 received the call about 2:50 p.m., then dispatched Windsor volunteers for a search and rescue.

Fire department crews from Proctorville, Chesapeake, Rome Township, Lawrence Township and Guyan Township in Gallia County were also called out.

"We had people there from volunteer fire departments from all around and people from the community," said Paul Murdock, an officer at Proctorville’s station.

"We weren’t giving up," Murdock said.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department brought boats to the scene, although the current was too swift to use them at first, Christian said.

A dog search team from Cabell County, W.Va., helped Wednesday. The Coal Grove Fire Department responded with a boat Thursday morning.

Searches continued around the clock after the Tuesday afternoon emergency call, Christian said.

"We had numerous family members, friends, residents, concerned citizens helping," he said. "There was about 100 people searching the creek all around."

Crews knew he was in the water but maintained hope that he might be found clinging to debris or on a bank further down the creek, Christian said.

But by Thursday morning, waters had receded to near normal and Rucker was found submerged in the creek at a pile of debris – about a mile downstream from the intersection of 775 and 217.

"I don’t know who found him," Christian said.

"I don’t think anybody would have had a chance in that water – even an adult," he said. "That water was just too deep and too swift."

Despite the tragedy, Christian said he felt something special about the unity of the search.

"There were so many people that were there to lend a hand," he said. "There were so many people that came together and got involved.

"All those people working together – all of them deserve to be commended, they really do."

Firefighters, volunteers, law enforcement officers, the American Red Cross, local churches, neighbors – they were not there just to see what was going on, Christian said.

"They got involved, they brought food anything needed was there," he said.

"I have never seen so many people involved in a time of an emergency like this. All of them pulled together. They all had a job to do and they all helped."

Christian said he just wished the search effort had turned out much differently.

A native of Scottown, Rucker was the son of Roger R. and Patty A. Rucker.

Funeral arrangements were pending this morning at Hall Funeral Home in Proctorville.

– Staff writer Blaine Mullins contributed to this story.