Rain didn’t deter the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office from continuing its search Friday for a missing San Miguel boy.
The effort to find 5-year-old Kyle Doan, a kindergartner at Lillian Larsen Elementary School, entered its fifth day with no sign of the child.
Kyle was on his way to school on Monday morning with his mother — Lillian Larsen Elementary special education teacher Lindsy Doan — when their vehicle became trapped in San Marcos Creek
Lindsy Doan was able to escape the floodwaters with the help of neighbors, but Kyle disappeared in the current.
The Sheriff’s Office has led the search from the beginning.
Earlier in the week, it was joined by about 200 personnel, including more than 100 California National Guard members, as well as drone operators, dive team members, search and rescue team members and K9 units from the Grover Beach Police Department, Cal Fire, and Ventura, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Santa Clara and Kern County sheriff’s offices.
However, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office was the sole agency conducting the search on Friday, agency spokesperson Tony Cipolla said.
“At this time, outside agencies and the National Guard have concluded their assistance,” Cipolla said.
“The search is being conducted in extremely challenging conditions with mud and debris hampering the efforts,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday. “But this is a comprehensive effort to search every brush pile and area of debris.”
At a prayer event held Thursday evening in San Miguel, Lindsy Doan said she appreciates the search efforts by law enforcement officials and community members.
“We’re so thankful for all of you,” she said. “You have been incredible going out to search. I can’t thank you guys enough.”