Searchers find body of toddler in river
DENVER (AP) -- Searchers found the body of a 2-year-old Wednesday in the South Platte River, several miles downstream from where he was swept away from his mother during a flash flood.
Jose Matthew Juaregui Jr.'s mother, identified by relatives as Elsha Guel, collapsed in tears as the boy's body was carried to a waiting vehicle.
A construction worker spotted the body seven to 10 miles downstream from where Jose Matthew Juaregui Jr. disappeared Monday night, authorities said. Floodwaters engulfed Jose and his mother as they were walking on a bike path beside the river.
Rescuers lifted the body to a railroad bridge about five feet over the river and covered it with tarp.
Guel had been out for her regular stroll with her son along a bike path that follows the South Platte downtown when a sudden thunderstorm dumped more than an inch of rain and sent a torrent of water down the river.x
Authorities said a teenager or young man sought earlier may have pulled himself out of the stream.
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