Monday, December 15, 2014

California Teen Killed in West Coast Storm

Eric Zerkel
Published: December 15,2014




 
A South Lake Tahoe, California, teenager was killed by a falling tree during last week's West Coast storm, South Lake Tahoe police said Saturday.
Dejon Smith, 14, was reported missing by his parents on Thursday afternoon as the storm moved into northern California. According to KRNV, Smith's parents last saw him Thursday after he walked his dog and went outside with friends.
A witness told police on Friday that Smith was last seen in a wooded area nearby the teen's home late Thursday evening, South Tahoe Now reports.
(MORE: West Coast Storm Recap)
Police searched the wooded area for Smith, but could not find the teen in the area the witness described.
On Saturday Smith's body was discovered in a different wooded area by a family friend, more than a half mile away from the area that police searched Friday. Smith's aunt told KRNV that volunteer search and rescue teams made up of family, friends and strangers, were able to locate Smith's body because of a tip from Smith's friend.
"He was just there, for those three days, we didn't know where my son was at and he was right up the street the whole time," Deshawn Smith, Dejon's father, told KNRV.
An investigation is still ongoing to determine the exact circumstances that led to Smith's death, but police said that, based on the initial investigation, it appeared that strong winds had toppled a 50-foot-tree onto the teen.
The storm packed wind gusts exceeding 100 mph in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, where South Lake Tahoe, California is located.
(PHOTOS: Mudslide Destroys 13 Homes)
Those winds were responsible for two deaths in Oregon. Strong gusts brought down a tree on Phillip Crosby, 40, a homeless man, killing him as he slept in his tent. Winds also toppled a tree onto a vehicle carrying Thomas William Graham, 11, and his mother, Susan Graham, 50, causing the vehicle to crash into another tree, killing the boy on impact.
And now, tragically, the storm has claimed another life.
"I just took my tree down and got rid of it,” Smith's father told KNRV. “There ain’t going to be no Christmas this year, not without my child being here."

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