Accident Database

Report ID# 2943

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  • Caught in a Natural Hydraulic
  • Does not Apply
  • One Boat Trip

Accident Description

 Witnesses Talk About the Body Recovery of Kent Hess

Posted: Aug 2, 2008

After nearly a week of searching, the body of Kent Hess, the man who drowned last Sunday while rafting on the Snake River, was found late last night. Forty-three-year-old Hess and his daughter were rafting down the Snake River when their raft capsized after going over an inversion dam just north of the Greenbelt boat launch. Hess' daughter was able to make it to shore safely; Hess did not.

One couple just happened to see the body recovery late Friday night. Dorothy, Witness: "We were riding our motorcycle, we stopped down there and decided to go walking." But what that simple night time stroll turned into was a scene Dorothy and her husband won't soon forget. "We saw him floating underneath the bridge into the area." The body they saw was that of 43-year-old Kent Hess. Hess' body had been missing for nearly a week.

The Bonneville County Search and Rescue had been scouring the Snake River with boats, jet skis, divers and even a helicopter - but late Friday night the body was spotted near the Broadway Bridge near downtown Idaho Falls. Dorothy: "A diver went into the water, swam along the edge there, and freed him from the log." Dorothy says as soon as they saw all the commotion and the body, they immediately knew it was the body of Hess. Ty Brennan, Reporter: "Have you ever seen something so awful before?" Dorothy: "No. But in a way it's good thing because it brought closure to the family."

In a statement from the Bonneville County Sherriff's Office, the Hess family thanked the community for their support during this difficult time.

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