Staff writer
sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com
WEBSTER - A rescue diver who just happened to be nearby pulled a Donora boy from the bottom of the Monongahela River in Webster Sunday evening shortly after the boy disappeared in the water.
Dave Yelle of Monroeville had finished training with Mon Valley Divers and was five minutes from Webster and on his way home when rescuers were summoned about 7 p.m.
He found Terrence Carlock, 12, within 10 minutes of his arrival.
"These are emotional things," Yelle said after emerging from the water in the Westmoreland County village across the river from Donora.
Emergency workers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the boy on the riverbank before he was taken by ambulance to Mon Valley Hospital, where he arrived at 7:25 p.m. Carlock was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m., according to the Washington County Coroner's office.
"We're all extremely proud of Dave," said Bruce Smith, assistant commander of the dive team associated with Rostraver-West Newton Ambulance Service.
He said Yelle found the boy in water about 12 feet deep. The boy had been swimming with a group of about seven other boys.
A witness said "a diver went in and five or ten minutes, he was back out."
"He was crying when he came out," said another witness who didn't want to be identified.
The boy's relatives were quick to arrive at the river's edge, and many were crying and moaning as an ambulance pulled away. A young girl who was identified as the boy's sister was placed in an ambulance after she collapsed several times on the road.