Update: Missing Rafter on Puyallup River Identified as South Hill Man

Update: The Tacoma News Tribune has identified the missing rafter as 25-year-old South Hill resident Austin Smith. Reports Wednesday indicate officials don't believe Smith is still alive. “We’re in recovery mode,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy J. Sousley told the TNT.

The search for Smith was called off around 11 a.m. Tuesday due to difficult water conditions, said East Pierce Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Rick Goetz in an agency press release. 

According to an incident report filed by Puyallup Police, Smith was possibly severely impaired by cold medication.

East Pierce firefighters had joined the Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies just before 1 a.m. to locate a rafter who was reported missing on the Puyallup River near Sumner. The East Pierce Fire and Rescue Water Rescue Team, assisted by fire crews, assembled at 80th Street East and State Route 162 East in the pre-dawn hours to search for a single person who had become separated from a group of rafters. That search was halted around 4 a.m. due to darkness.

Deputies and firefighters, including crews from Orting Valley Fire and Rescue and Central Pierce Fire and Rescue, reassembled at daylight to resume the search. However, muddy, swift-moving water hampered efforts. The search was called off just before noon.

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Original Story

East Pierce Fire and Rescue firefighters joined the Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies to locate a rafter who was reported missing at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning on the Puyallup River near Sumner.

According to Acting Battalion Chief Tim McCoy, the East Pierce Fire and Rescue Water Rescue Team, assisted by fire crews, assembled at 80th Street East and State Route 162 East early this morning to search for a single person who had become separated from a group of rafters.

The effort was called off around 4 a.m. due to darkness. The firefighters and deputies will reassemble at 7:30 a.m. to resume the search.