Possible sighting of missing boy on Bibb Pond was later identified as some debris

Activity picked up on Bibb Pond shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday after a firefighter located a possible target in the water from a helicopter but it turned out to be a false alarm.

The material turned out to be some debris that was similar to the shape of a 4-year-old boy who disappeared with his father on March 28 while fishing, said Battalion Chief Donnie Jones of Columbus Department of Fire & Emergency Medical Services. On Sunday, the body of 27-year-old James Rabon of Bonneau, S.C., was recovered about 12:15 p.m. when it was spotted from the air by a spotter in a Georgia Department of Natural Resources helicopter, which has been involved in the search since Thursday.

Jones said a search crew with about 30 firefighters, Columbus police and Department of Natural Resources personnel will remain on the pond until nightfall. Using six divers, the afternoon search concentrated on the area north of J.R. Allen Parkway and south of Lake Oliver dam.

“We are not moving south of J.R. Allen but we are still trying to stay 75 percent north of J.R. Allen,” said Capt. Danny Macon. “We are not ruling out south of J.R. Allen.”

Jones said the DNR helicopter from Atlanta was busy in the morning and the Columbus Police Department’s helicopter flew in the afternoon. Divers are about to get some high-tech assistance courtesy of the state of South Carolina, Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services Chief Robert Futrell said Tuesday morning.

With little luck in finding the boy amid the rocks, limbs, metal and other debris between the J.R. Allen Parkway and the Oliver Dam near the Georgia bank, search crews are scheduled to get additional help later this week from a new piece of sonar equipment that will be worn by a diver.

“It is new technology and we have never seen it before,” Futrell said. “The sonar unit is on the diver and there will be a technician with a laptop working from a boat.”

If the search is still going, the device will be deployed on Thursday, Futrell said. It became available when an officer in the Georgia DNR officer reached out to a counterpart in with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. A plane from Georgia DNR will fly to South Carolina to get the equipment and operators, bringing them to Columbus to join the search efforts.

“We are going to use every resource we can find,” Futrell said.

In addition to the air search, teams of five to eight divers and multiple boats equipped with sonar and other detection devices have been working in the narrow part of the river about 250 yards below the Oliver Dam. They began at 7 a.m. Tuesday and will work until darkness or weather conditions force them off the river, Jones said during a morning briefing.

Macon has been one of the divers involved in the search. He said the area presented difficult issues for those working in the water. The deepest part of the pond is about 34 feet.

“Basically, there are some deep holes in this part of the river and there are a lot of undercut rocks,” he said. “It makes it difficult because you are actually swimming under the rock in a cave-like sense. You will swim under the rock and it is over your head, so you have to find your way out.”

And the divers’ ability to see is restricted, Macon said.

“When you get down there, the visibility drops from about 3 feet to 6 inches,” he said. “There is a lot of debris, sticks, we have found shopping buggies. There is some metal down there, a lot of trees that have fallen over the years and some entrapments.”

The father and son were fishing near a wooded area below the Oliver Dam and just north of J.R. Allen Parkway when witnesses reported seeing the boy fall in the river and the father go in after him after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Watson said previously. There was an unsuccessful attempt by the witnesses to rescue the father and son.

Neither was wearing a life jacket, according to Columbus Fire and EMS.

A week into the search, rescue workers are becoming more resolved to find the boy. His family has kept vigil not far from the search site and are being updated by Columbus Fire & EMS and DNR commanders multiple times each day.

“We’ll be here every day until we find him,” Jones said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2018 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Possible sighting of missing boy on Bibb Pond was later identified as some debris."