DNA confirms body found in Northern California waters is second missing duck-hunting teen
The body of the second teen who disappeared last month with his brother on Thermalito Afterbay was recovered after it was spotted Sunday morning, 22 days after the teens plunged into the Butte County waterway while duck hunting.
The discovery was made near the Highway 162 bridge, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, not far from the site of a Saturday vigil for the brother. Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Megan McMann said a citizen walking along the roadway, about four miles west of Oroville, spotted the body and called authorities about 9:12 a.m.
DNA analysis positively identified the victim as Wesley Cornett, 17, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said in a Monday news release.
“We send our condolences to the family and friends of Wesley and Andruw Cornett during this devastating time,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.
The body was found not far from where Wesley and his brother, Andruw Cornett, 19, were duck hunting on Dec. 14. The older brother’s body was found in the waterway and positively identified on Dec. 31.
Juan Heredia, a diver who had been searching for the boys with other volunteers, posted on Facebook that the younger Cornett had been located, saying the search “is over!!! We go back home!” He and others had been chronicling their search on social media.
“We continued searching for Wesley on the surface as the sheriff brought cadaver dogs and restricted diving,” Heredia wrote on Saturday, what would have been Andruw’s 20th birthday. “Today, with full determination, I will dive. I am committed to finding this boy and bringing him home to his family.”
Family and friends hosted a vigil Saturday night for the teens at Monument Hill boat ramp, not far from where the search had been taking place.
Sheriff’s dispatchers’ last communication with the elder Cornett was on Dec. 14. 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. Wesley’s wallet was located Dec. 19. Stanislaus County Sheriff’s divers found Wesley Cornett’s jacket with his phone inside the next day.
The boys’ mother, April Clark, and her family organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the search and to pay for burial costs. As of Sunday, the fund had raised more than $56,000.
This story was originally published January 5, 2025 at 1:06 PM.
