On May 28th, 2018,

CBDR was dispatched to conduct a search for a young man by the name of Dmetri Kennedy-Woody, a Hanford High School senior who had gone missing while swimming with friends in the Yakima River. The Golden Hour came and went, and hours stretched into days due to the treacherous conditions below the surface of the water. CBDR, along with several other agencies and countless private individuals aiding in the search, turned up nothing. As this played out, it became clear to us on the team that traditional methods of gathering witness testimony and locating Last-Seen Points were no longer sufficient—that our community’s families deserved better, and that modern technology had a role to play in bringing the families of those who are lost the closure of having that loved one brought home for proper memorialization.

A campaign was born through this search for Dmetri that would go on to do just that; through which the communities and businesses of the Columbia Basin showed extraordinary support for CBDR’s mission- but moreover for the families in our community forced to endure the loss of loved ones in our area’s waterways.

In April of 2019, CBDR took delivery of our Marine Sonic ARC Explorer side scan sonar system, months ahead of our original expectations. The following month, two team members traveled to Virginia to attend training with the system’s manufacturer. Within weeks of their return, our services were requested by the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office in the search for two missing boaters. Only hours into that first search with the system, we were able to locate not one, but both of the missing individuals and later that same evening made the recoveries of both of their remains. The loss to the community in such an event can be profound, but to a family it is nothing short of devastating. From its first time it’s been used in an active mission, the system has proven its potential to not only make these recoveries faster and reduce the exposure of our divers to unseen dangers, but to also bring closure to mourning families in a timely manner.