Search for missing SLO County boy will resume with teams moving farther up river

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office will resume its search for missing 5-year-old Kyle Doan this weekend, public information office Tony Cippola said.

A “small search group” of sheriff’s search and rescue and dive team members will search the Salinas River north of the River Road bridge starting at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, Cipolla said.

Approximately 20 people will be involved in the search Cipolla said.

“This is simply part of our continuing search efforts,” Cipolla said. “This area is just a little further north of the areas we had been searching as we continue up the Salinas River.”

Doan, a kindergartener at Lillian Larsen Elementary School, went missing Jan. 9 when he was carried away from his mother by fast-moving floodwaters.

Bystanders were able to rescue his mother, a teacher at Lillian Larsen Elementary School.

Searches by more than 300 people have recovered “multiple items of personal property from the car,” including a lunchbox, laptop, DVDs and a school ID, Cipolla told the Tribune Jan. 25.

A small Nike shoe was also recovered after Doan’s disappearance.

The Sheriff’s Office previously enlisted the help of outside agencies including the National Guard, drone operators, dive team members, search and rescue team members and K9 units from the Grover Beach Police Department, Cal Fire, and Ventura, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Santa Clara and Kern County sheriff’s offices.