Body of woman recovered from Willamette River
Posted Sep 03, 2019
Polk County Sheriff's Office recovers body of woman missing
since Saturday
The woman was missing after tubing on the Willamette River
By Jayati Ramakrishnan | The Oregonian/OregonLive
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has recovered the body of
a woman who went missing while floating the Willamette River with friends on
Saturday. Searchers found the body of Tracy Allen, 37, just north of
the Buena Vista Ferry at the base of a logjam, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
Allen had gone missing from that same area around 2:30 p.m.
Saturday when she and two friends hit a large root ball snag off the west shore
of the river, authorities said. The three had tied their inner tubes together.
Two of the women got to shallow water and scrambled to an
island, but Allen disappeared under the water and wasn’t seen again. Searchers
said Allen knew how to swim and was wearing a life jacket, but the strong
current was too much for her and the water was littered with tree debris that
snagged her.
It took more than eight hours to recover Allen’s body as
deputies worked through the current and had to cut multiple logs and root
systems.
Another two other women who were part of the group didn’t
get caught on the snag, the Sheriff’s Office said.
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320;
jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR
