Officials in Wyoming have scaled back the search for a University of Georgia rising senior who went missing after he was thrown from a raft on the Snake River on the Fourth of July.
“It is with a heavy heart that we move to the next stage of this event,” Teton County sheriff’s Sgt. Lloyd Funk said in a statement.
Oliver Woodward, 21, was last seen Tuesday evening in the river canyon, Funk said. He grew up in metro Atlanta, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Woodward and another rafter, who were in a group of six, were thrown when the raft went through rapids known as King’s Wave, Funk said.
None of the rafters had on a life jacket, Funk told a Wyoming newspaper.
Responding officers eventually found the other rafter in good health.
While officials have scaled back the search for Woodward, missing-person fliers will still be handed out, and river users will be asked to be observant, according to the sheriff’s office.
At UGA, where Woodward is a real estate major, officials said they “continue to wait and hope for good news” and “stand ready to assist in any way we can.”
In a statement, a spokesman said the university’s “thoughts and prayers are with Oliver, his family and his friends.”
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