A 12-year-old Boy Scout died Saturday after he was digging under a sand dune and it collapsed on top of him, authorities said.
The boy, Gage Wilson, of Portage, was discovered trapped by two fellow Boy Scouts on Saturday afternoon inside a sand dune at North Point County Park in Van Buren County. Emergency workers resuscitated the boy at the scene, but Gage later died at a hospital, South Haven police said.
Police said Gage’s death appears to be the result of a tragic accident, but they are still investigating the incident.
Investigators told WWMT that Gage had been digging into the side of a sane dune with two other Boy Scouts when he managed to get trapped inside a small space he created. The two other Boy Scouts who were with Gage didn’t realize he was missing for up to 30 minutes, Sgt. Zach Hathaway told the station.
“They saw part of his body,” Hathaway said. “I think his legs were exposed out of the sand, and that’s when they realized something was wrong.”
Police then had to carry Gage through difficult terrain — including dunes, trails and water hazards — to a waiting ambulance. He later died at a hospital near Kalamazoo due to his injuries, police said.
“They had to trek and walk up the sand dune, kind of meandering through the area that’s wooded with ravines and eventually walk back to the sand dune’s water edge,” Hathaway told the station. “Any time you have an area that’s unstable dirt or sand, there’s always potential for something like this.”
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, WWMT reports.
Donald Shepard, CEO of the Michigan Crossroads Council of the Boy Scouts of America, confirmed the death of one of its youth members in a statement posted on Facebook.
“We offer our deepest condolences to the victim and his family, and we will support them in any way that we can,” the statement read. “Please join us in keeping all those affected in your thoughts and prayers.”
Shepard’s statement did not indicate how many organizers had been supervising Gage’s troop immediately prior to the accident, but said that “safety is integral to everything” that the Boy Scouts do as an organization.
