Body of man recovered from John Day River in Wheeler County
By Logan Bagett on Monday, June 3rd, 2024 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
WHEELER COUNTY – According to information from the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office, on Sunday morning, around 8:20 a.m., a member of Wheeler County Search and Rescue along with members of Wheeler County Fire & Rescue located the body of a reported missing person.
Rudy Carrillo, listed as missing since May 26th, was found deceased by deputies in the John Day River. The Sheriff’s Office reports that, “Rudy tried to swim across the John Day River near Highway 19 at milepost 84. Rudy made it part way across the river and started to have trouble.” A search immediately began, lasting for several days. Mr. Carrillo was recovered on June 2nd without incident.
Find the original release regarding the search below:
(Original release from the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office, 5/27/2024)
SUBJECT:
Rudy Carrillo (pictured below)
Age 32
5’ 09” tall
185 pounds
Black hair
Brown eyes
On Saturday 05/26/2024 at about 2:15pm Rudy tried to swim across the John Day River near Highway 19 at milepost 84. Rudy made it part way across the river and started to have trouble. A Wheeler county Deputy just happened to be driving by the area and immediately had Spray Volunteer Fire, Spray Volunteer Ambulance and SAR units respond. A boat team was put in the river and Air Life was immediately activated and flew the river for about 9 miles, with negative results. Mutual aid was requested from Umatilla County who responded.
At the same time we had another SAR along the John Day River near Clarno which diverted our resources.
During this time we had a two person SAR team walk the river and use binoculars to try and locate Rudy, with negative results.
Umatilla County SAR arrived at about 7:00pm and put another boat in the water and launched a drone near milepost 84. A joint ground team then searched down to the wood bridge, crossed the bridge and went as far upstream as possible but were stopped by steep terrain. River and drone operations continued
until about 10:00pm.
Operational Period #2 Monday 05/27/2024 Wheeler County SAR along with Umatilla SAR began operations before 6:00am. Gilliam County Sheriff’s Office Deputy, Deschutes County SAR, Union County SAR, Oregon State Police Troopers and BLM Rangers conducted multiple searches during the operational period. These searches included Dive Teams, K-9 Teams, Drone, multiple water vessels and ground searches.
Wheeler County SAR and other mutual aid agencies will continue to conduct operations over the next several days.
If you have any information please do not hesitate to contact non-emergency dispatch at (541) 384-2080.
