Two teenage brothers in California have been missing for over a week since embarking on a hunting trip on December 14. Wesley Cornett, 17, and Andruw Cornett, 19, were going duck hunting at the Thermalito Afterbay in Butte County when they never returned home. Reports indicate that one of the brothers had overturned in their kayak, leading to the other attempting a rescue.
The Butte County Sheriff shared an update on Facebook on December 23, stating, “The search and recovery efforts for Andruw and Wesley Cornett have entered the tenth day at the Thermalito Afterbay. At this point in the recovery, we have exhausted efforts with divers and sonar technology and will shift the focus to a continuous limited search. This involves surface search methods, which includes aircrafts, drones, boats, on-shore vehicles, and K9s.”
Hundreds of volunteers and various organizations have come together to help rescue the missing brothers. “Approximately 250 people from 21 different organizations have been searching for Wesley and Andruw Cornett since last Saturday, the day the two brothers went missing while duck hunting at the Thermalito Afterbay,” the sheriff’s office noted.
The mother of the two boys, April Clark explained what occurred in a GoFundMe set up in the aftermath of the tragedy. “My name is April Clark. I’m raising money for my 2 boys who are missing at the thermlito afterbay in Oroville ca. My two handsome sons went hunting Saturday Dec 14th 2024. Wesley 17 went out on the kayak and over turned and his brother Andruw 19 seen him in distress called 911 and stated there was no time to wait he was going in to save his brother,” the fundraiser’s description read.
Clark continued, “Neither one of my boys have been seen since Saturday. Andruw is a hero in my eyes. Im asking for help I drive 45 miles out everyday to search for my boys and some family is staying out there every night. The Sheriff is saying this is now a search and recovery so i will have to also plan to lay my two boys to rest. This is a freak accident that my family and I are trying to wrap our heads around and we also have 4 girls at home who we still need to care for.”
Illustrating the unimaginable pain caused by the accident, the mother said, “This is hard for me to write as im beyond broken into so many pieces if you can please find it in your heart to donate and help our family find and lay my handsome two young boys to rest any amount of support will forever be blessed for our family. We thank you to all the prayers and help we could not have made it this far with out all the love we have got and we thank you all so so much.”
Providing a new update on the fundraiser, Clark said, “I just received confirmation that Andruw and Wesley Nana Debbie Job work Toyota amphitheater will be matching every dollar that is donated to my handsome young boys on this go fund me. So please even if u can donate a dollar it will be doubled anything helps if u can’t donate please Share and pray for my family and I. I appreciate all the people who have already donated and I can’t thank you enough. This community is amazing so thank you all so much.”
Featured image credit: GoFundMe
"*" indicates required fields