Search continues for 13-year-old boy presumed drowned in Green River

By ROBERT WHALE

Reporter Newspapers

The search continues for a 13-year-old boy missing since the car he was riding in plunged into the Green River near the Auburn Golf Course on Nov. 7, King County Sheriff’s Spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said Monday. “What we’ve been doing lately is pretty much every day flying our helicopter along the river,” Urquhart said of the search for 13-year-old Austin Fuda. “We managed to get a boat into the water (last) Friday. We are going to keep trying to do that. That’s all we can do.”

Fuda is presumed drowned.

The accident also killed Fuda’s cousin, 2-year-old Hunter Beaupre. The two boys were passengers in a Volkswagen Beetle driven by a 16-year-old girl, a relative of one of the boys, who lost control of the car along a windy stretch of Green River Road Southeast at about 8:30 a.m., north of the golf course. The girl tried to save the boys, but the river swept the car 100 yards downstream.

When authorities finally lifted the battered Beetle from the river on Nov. 11, Beaupre was found inside, still strapped to his car seat, but Fuda was missing.

Authorities started their search for Fuda immediately, with the Valley Regional Fire Authority and the King and Pierce County sheriff’s dive teams in boats using pole cameras and sonar equipment. Search dogs were employed to check the riverbank.

Instead, ground searchers and Guardian One, the county’s search helicopter, combed banks of the river downstream from where the car entered the water.

Separate memorial funds have been set up at Bank of America for each boy.