Body recovered from California waterway identified as 1 of 2 missing duck-hunting brothers
A body was recovered Tuesday from the Thermalito Afterbay near Oroville, where two brothers from Yuba County went missing while duck hunting more than two weeks ago.
Butte County Sheriff’s officials announced the discovery days after limiting its search last week for brothers Wesley Cornett, 17, and 19-year-old Andruw Cornett, of Olivehurst, who disappeared the morning of Dec. 14.
The body was first spotted from the air by a sheriff’s helicopter pilot about 9:30 a.m. before being recovered by searchers, said Megan McCann, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Authorities positively identified the body as that of Andruw Cornett, the Sheriff’s Office announced just after 4 p.m.
Searchers were continuing their work Tuesday but officials said the sheriff’s pilot who located the body was forced to land his helicopter to avoid a drone that had flown too close to the aircraft.
“We will continue to search by air but the flying of drones inhibit our pilots from flying and, if it continues, we will work to identify the pilots and charge them with impeding our response,” McCann said.
Sheriff’s dispatchers’ last communication with the elder Cornett was 11 days before Christmas. Andruw told them that his brother’s kayak had overturned in the afterbay and he was going into the water after him.
Neither was wearing a life jacket. Dispatchers urged Cornett not to go into the water in the moments before the duo disappeared.
Nearly 300 people from county search-and-rescue teams, state agencies and private firms joined the search for the Cornett brothers.
Three days after the teen brothers vanished, divers specializing in deep underwater construction and heavy marine salvage found Andruw’s pants on Dec. 17. Brother Wesley’s wallet was located Dec. 19. Stanislaus County Sheriff’s divers found Wesley Cornett’s jacket with his phone inside the next day.
This story was originally published December 31, 2024 at 1:52 PM.
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