Divers have retrieved the bodies of two teenage cousins who fell through an ice-covered pond Monday.
Joshua Johnson, 15, Pleasant View, and Jeremy Brandon, 15, Ogden, drowned in the six-acre pond after they apparently tried to walk across the ice.Families, friends and church associates searched the area Monday night after the boys did not come home. The search was called off because of darkness.
On Tuesday morning, a plane flown by a family friend searched the area and spotted a baseball cap on the pond. At the same time, a basketball was seen floating near a hole in the ice, and the Weber County Search and Rescue underwater recovery team began their search.
Johnson's body was found about 10 a.m. Cold water and depleting air supplies led to a second dive at 1 p.m. when Brandon was found.
The pond, located north of the Weber County Fairgrounds, is about 15 feet deep.
The boys were last seen Monday afternoon when they left the Shady Lane Apartments carrying a basketball.
They were believed walking to the Harrisville Park to play basketball when they took a shortcut through a field near a brick company. Because they told Brandon's younger sister they were taking a shortcut through the area, the pond was the focus of much of the search Monday.
"We don't know if they tried cutting across or if the ball rolled across and they tried to retrieve it," said Weber County Sheriff Craig Dearden. "It's an area owned by a brick company, and with the holiday (Human Rights Day), no one was down there."
Dearden said the ice was about 1 inch thick and covered only part of the pond. The location of the bodies indicates the boys tried to swim to the ice's edge before being overcome by the cold water, Dearden said.
Neal Mingo, an elder in the North Ogden congregation of Jehovah's Witness, said the boys, who were friends as well as cousins, were active in the church.
"They were just real clean, straight kids," Mingo said. "I think the parents were pretty convinced last night that they were definitely in the area. Joshua had a driver's training appointment at 6:30 on Monday, and he had made it a point when he got dropped off at his cousin's to get picked up in time to get to the appointment. (The parents) knew they didn't have any alternate plans," Mingo said.
Johnson would have celebrated his 16th birthday on Saturday. He was a sophomore at Weber High School. Brandon was being schooled at home by his parents.
Mingo said the families' faith will help them through the accident.
"We have an extremely strong belief in the Resurrection," Mingo said, noting the drownings were accidental and the families did not blame God. "The families really believe that's what this was - a terrible accident."