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Police identify toddler who drowned in Box Elder County

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THATCHER, Utah -- Police have identified a toddler who drowned in a canal in Box Elder County and say the boy's father found his son inside a pipe hundreds of yards from their home.

According to the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office, the deceased is identified as 16-month-old Jackson Scott Weaver.

Police say they were dispatched to a home around 9 p.m. Monday on report of a missing boy, and the boy's father told police the child had been playing in the yard with his brothers just prior to them noticing the boy was gone.

The home is located near both an irrigation canal and an adjacent irrigation ditch and is just north of the Thatcher/Penrose Fire Department. The search began in the canal and the company that manages it was contacted about shutting off the water.

Police say the boy's father began searching near a water diversion structure that sends water from an open ditch into a PVC pipe system that runs both above and below ground and diverts water to neighboring fields. The father followed the pipe until it came back above ground and then started taking apart pipe sections at the joints.

The father found his son inside the pipe, about 530 yards from the opening to the pipe near the family's home.

Emergency units rendered aid, but Jackson was ultimately pronounced deceased.

"Investigation at the scene determined that this was a tragic accident and no foul play of any kind is suspected," the press release states.

Box Elder County Sheriff's Office called the death a drowning but say the body will be sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy and for an official determination of the cause of death.