Searchers Will Try Again Today to Find Body of Missing Teen Swimmer

Friends of the family have set up a "Celebration Fund" in the name of Zacharey Harle.

Photo courtesy: Polk County Sheriff

(SALEM, Ore. ) - The Polk County Sheriff's Office resumed searching the Willamette River for 16-year-old Zacharey Harle without any success in locating the missing young man.

Thursday's search included specialized trained dogs from the Marion County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team and the Newberg Fire Department Water Rescue Dive Team.

Other searchers involved included members of the Polk County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team as well as concerned citizens that came forward and volunteered their time and equipment to aid in the search which included a citizen from Monmouth that volunteered his personal helicopter to fly over the search area.

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Alexander Klawuhn informed the deputies that he and his friend were trying to swim across the river when they got about halfway across and got into trouble.

They thought they could float down to the Railroad Bridge but ended up going past the bridge when 16-year-old Zachery Harle began having trouble staying afloat.

Klawuhn hung on to Harle as long as he could before he had to let go as he too was having trouble staying afloat.

On Friday, the Sheriff's Office plans to continue the search operations focusing from the last point Zacharey was seen all the way into Yamhill County with the help again of the Newberg Fire Department Water Rescue Dive Team.

Friends of the family have set up a "Celebration Fund" in the name of Zacharey Harle at the Marion & Polk Schools Credit Union, P.O. Box 12398, Salem, Oregon, 97309.