(AP) _ Authorities say the body of a 14-year-old has been found less than a mile downstream from where he disappeared while swimming in the Big River at the Rockford Beach Park in eastern Missouri.
Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Juston Wheetley says a resident from the area found Devon Cotton’s body Sunday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Cotton was swimming with friends Wednesday
when he went under and never resurfaced.
Devon’s father, Carlos Cotton, said his son could swim. But he disappeared near a swirling underwater drop that authorities said would be a challenge for even the most experienced swimmers.
The Army Corps of Engineers has done some work on the river there to try to make it safer, but the river was higher than normal after recent storms.
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