While we were wrapping up a week-long search in Arkansas to help locate Stacey Hernandez, I began receiving messages about four-year-old Angela, whose family reported her missing on Monday near the Wisconsin River. Then I received a call from Angela’s mother asking if we could help her find her daughter. There was no way I could turn her down. I immediately began making plans to head down in order to assist the Lone Rock residents in their search for Angela, who was last seen playing on the riverbank. Scott was not able to make this journey because he needed to return to work. After the twelve-hour drive from Arkansas and a few hours of sleep, I left for Gotham, WI, where I was met by numerous volunteers. Again, the rain was off and on all day, limiting the amount of time we were able to run the sonar equipment.
On day two, we deployed the ROV in the area of interest. I was told that with the recent rain, the water level had already gone up about 3 feet from the time of Angela’s disappearance. I was in an area where visibility is normally 1 to 2 feet, but today visibility was hovered at 0. I suited up with the back-up divers from the local fire department, and unfortunately we did not have success locating the little girl. Tonight I am reviewing sonar images, and tomorrow we will head back out to the river to continue the search in hopes of locating Angela in an attempt to bring a bit of comfort to a family in desperate need of closure during a tragic time.