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A search and rescue mission began Tuesday to locate Shaun and turned into a recovery mission Wednesday, according to the Mesquite Fire Department. He has been missing for about than 49 hours when the body was found.

Shaun, 14, was swept away by flood waters south of the Interstate 635 overpass at Bruton Road at about 1:42 p.m. Tuesday when he was reportedly playing in Mesquite Creek and was pulled in by fast-moving flood waters. His friend, Joel Wilson, 15, was able to swim to safety, but witnessed Shaun being swept away by the strong current and into a drainage pipe under I-635.

“The description of the young man’s body fits that of Shaun Hebert,” said Lt. Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Mesquite Fire Department.

The Garland Swift Water Rescue Team was working an area of Mesquite Creek with water maybe as deep as three feet when it uncovered a body that was later confirmed to be Hebert.

More than 120 responders, both professional and trained volunteers, were involved in the search.

“They located the victim in an area where the body was being kept under water by the roots of a tree,” said David Martin, special chief with the Dallas Police Department.

The body was discovered about a quarter-mile from the area where it is believed fast-moving current overtook him in McWhorter Park.

The death of Shaun is renewing safety questions for many friends and neighbors concerning recent construction along that area of Mesquite Creek, where three converging creeks have been paved up to drainage tunnels that travel under I-635.

“It is not safe now,” said Wilma Lair, a 35-year resident of the Edgemont Park subdivision where Shaun’s family resides. “There are three creeks that all come together here. The water was just so swift.”

Laura Beth Hammons, a community activist for Edgemont Park, indicates for the past year she has addressed safety issues with the city in regards to the culvert in the area where Shaun was overtaken by flood waters.

“There’s a safety issue,” Hammons said. “There should be signs posted.”

Lair indicates in 35 years she cannot recall heavy rain causing the water to move so swift or rising as quickly as it did Tuesday.

“When I was a kid we would be down here Crawdad fishing,” said Kerri Cantrell, a mother of a small child. “They paved the creek and now it attracts more kids for skateboarding. It can’t be good.”

The search area for Shaun, who played the French horn in the band at West Mesquite High School, grew to as much as a four-mile area before he was discovered.

While emergency personnel searched Mesquite Creek for the body, neighbors and friends gathered near the command center at McWhorter Park.

“We are all very upset with anything that happens to any children in our neighborhood,” Hammons said. “Anything we can do as a community, we’ll do it.”

“My heart goes out to the family and we feel their grief,” Cantrell said. “I only have one child and I just don’t know what I would do if anything happened. This is Mesquite. Things like this don’t happen in Mesquite.”

The search for Shaun began at about 1:48 p.m. Tuesday. Emergency personnel called for air support in the search from the Department of Public Safety at about 6 p.m. Swift water rescue personnel was called in and emergency personnel have called upon parks and recreation and public works staff to assist in the mission to find Shaun.

The swift water team from the Dallas Fire Department searched the tunnels under I-635, swimming in areas where they believed a body could be trapped.

The search began with Mesquite fire and police in a joint effort with the Balch Springs Fire Department. A team of four search dogs were called upon to comb the creek to find Shaun.

“Their job is to find the victim more quickly,” Martin said. “There have been some occasions where the dogs do what we call showing interest. It is very windy, so that has an affect on the scent trail.”

“The brush is so thick that our dog handlers called back and asked if we had machetes,” Martin said. “A storm like we had brings a lot of debris downstream.”

Neighbors in the Edgemont Park community were holding out hope that Shaun could be found unharmed.

“I’m always at the playground and I’m sure I have seen him around,” Hammons said. “It is so sad. My cousin and I were talking about how we were down there playing as kids and what could have happened to us.”

By BRIAN PORTER/Managing Editor
(Created: Thursday, March 20, 2008)