No sign of SLO County boy swept away by floodwaters after 2-day search

An expansive two-day search for 5-year-old Kyle Doan, who was swept away by floodwaters in January, failed to find any sign of the missing San Miguel boy.

“Unfortunately Kyle was not located,” the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet Sunday. “We are saddened that these efforts did not result in reuniting Kyle with his family.”

On Saturday and Sunday, a total of 330 professional search-and-rescue crew members scoured a 6-mile-long and half-mile-wide section of the Salinas River that meets up with San Marcos Creek. Large parts of the river were still covered in massive piles of debris from winter floods.

“This weekend has been hard and we’re at a loss for words as today marks the six-month mark” since Doan disappeared, his mother, Lindsy Doan, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

She and her son, a kindergarten student at Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel, were trying to drive across San Marcos Creek on Jan. 9 when floodwaters carried Kyle away.

July 17 would have been Kyle’s sixth birthday, his father, Brian Doan, said by phone Monday.

Father of missing SLO County boy critical of search efforts

Kyle Doan’s parents have been highly critical of the county’s efforts to search for their missing son.

“Unfortunately I’m not shocked that they didn’t find anything,” Brian Doan said of the latest search.

Doan and his wife believe their son is buried under the sediment and debris that has built up in the area since January, he said.

“It doesn’t seem like they are going to have very good luck looking for clues on the surface if something is obscured and covered under inches and possibly feet of sediment and debris,” Doan said.

Doan said he and his wife were disappointed that K-9 teams were not involved in the latest search effort.

The county “doesn’t seem very adept at trying to access technology,” he said.

Moving forward, the Doans hope to see the use of lidar sensor-carrying drones that could better detect what lies beneath the surfaces of San Marcos Creek and the Salinas River.

What’s next in search for Kyle Doan?

The Sheriff’s Office said it will now determine the best steps moving forward in the search for Kyle.

“At this time the Sheriff’s Office will be assessing the situation to determine what is reasonable and possible going forward,” the Sheriff’s Office said via Twitter on Sunday.

“We would like to thank everyone who assisted this weekend as well as our community for the ongoing support,” the agency added.