Body of missing 10-year-old kayaker found in Yellow Breeches Creek

Saturday afternoon, a group of family and friends - three adults and four children - embarked on a kayaking excursion on the Yellow Breeches, starting the mile-and-a-half-long trip at Sheepford Road.

Moments after entering the water, at about 5 p.m., the party ran into heavy debris, some from the recent visit of the remnants of Tropical Storm Debbie and some that had been in the creek for years, stirred up by the fast-moving moving water in the wake of the storm.

Most of the kayakers made it to the bank, but one of the party, a 10-year-old boy, was swept under the water. He did not resurface, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission reported.

It touched off a 3.5-day-long search and recovery on the creek in the area above the dam at Limekiln Road. He remained missing while some 250 first responders, many of them volunteers, scoured the creek and searched the accumulated debris for the boy.

"Our mission was to find the missing 10-year-old," Brandon Freistat, Fairview Township's emergency management coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

"Today, I can tell you we have accomplished our mission."

The body of the 10-year-old boy, Matthew Coffroth Jr. of Lancaster County, was found at 8:36 a.m. Wednesday at the edge of the debris field in the Yellow Breeches Creek upstream from the dam at Limekiln Road, Freistat and the York County Coroner's Office said.

The boy's family was present at the scene and was notified immediately, he said.

The search included first responders from seven counties and two states, he said. The body was found about a mile downstream from where the boy entered the water on a kayaking expedition with his family and some friends.

"We have found the child that was here, and it was an important mission for us to accomplish - both for the family and for the responders," Freistat said.

Of the family, Freistat said, "We grieve with them."

Freistat said he would not describe details of how and where the boy's body was discovered "out of respect to the family."

Mike Parker, communications director for the state Fish & Boat Commission, said the department has begun its investigation into what has been ruled as a boating fatality, the 10th such fatality reported in the state this year.

The investigation, he said, is in its "very preliminary" stages and could take "days, weeks or even months." He said it was "too early" to report whether the 10-year-old was wearing a life vest, adding that will be determined in the investigation. He said the family and the boy had previously kayaked and that "it's not the first time he's been in the water."

On Wednesday morning, crews using two John Deere excavators were clearing a massive amount of debris at the dam at the end of Limekiln and Slate Hill roads. The debris includes everything from branches to tree trunks, accumulated by “years and years and years” of storms, according to one worker.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Body of missing 10-year-old kayaker found in Yellow Breeches Creek