A Utah teen died, and another is recovering, after the two boys fell through an icy pond in Utah.
Lt. Will Farr of the Ogden Police Department tells PEOPLE that local officials received a call at 4:30 p.m. local time on Monday, Jan. 27, sending over an emergency dive team to rescue the teens.
Two other teens who were fishing at Glasmann Pond told NBC affiliate KSL-TV that they heard the teens cry for help and saw them plunge into the icy water. After rushing over to help, they called 911, then used their fishing rods to try and rescue the boys — successfully pulling one of the boys out of the water,
A city spokesman told the outlet that teen was taken to a local hospital and treated for mild hypothermia.
Farr tells PEOPLE that the other teen was not rescued from the water until 6:50 p.m., at which point he was transported to a local hospital before being life-flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. Doctors continued life-saving measures at the hospital, but he did not survive, Farr said.
Although local police have not released the identities of the teens, family members have identified the boy who died as 14-year-old Samuel Creel, a 9th-grader at South Ogden Junior High School.
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Creel, who had autism, was remembered as a “loving big brother” who “also liked playing video games, working on computers and the outdoors.”
“My sister loves her sons with all her heart and I feel her pain and sorrow,” Creel’s aunt wrote in a message shared on a fundraising page set up to help his family. “We are all still greatly in shock and want to be there for her and everyone in our family who has had the pleasure of knowing and loving Sammy.”
Speaking with independent station KJZZ, the boy’s mother and stepfather said that when Creel left home, he told his grandfather he was going to spend time with a friend, but they had no idea they planned to visit Glasmann Pond.
“I was like, ‘Should I chase after him?’ “ stepfather Nathan Gidley recalled. “Yes, I should have chased after him.”
Added his mom, Liana Larsen, “I’m going to miss him so much.”
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