Body found on Sandy River is Portland drowning victim

Man fell in river while fishing with son in late October

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Dec 23, 2009, Updated Dec 23, 2009

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The Multnomah County coroner’s office identified a body found Saturday, Dec. 19, on the Sandy River as that of a Portland man who drowned near Cedar Creek on Oct. 31.

Yevhen Savchenko, 55, of Southeast Portland, fell into the river while with his 16-year-old son, Olexander, in Clackamas County on Saturday, Oct. 31. A three-day, 13-mile river search — including 35 searchers and dogs — came up empty. By Sunday, Nov. 1, Savchenko was presumed drowned.

The body discovered by a boater on Saturday at Indian John Island was Savchenko’s, said Damon O’Brien, deputy with the Multnomah County Medical Examiners’ office. Found about 10 miles downriver from where he fell in, Savchenko died of drowning, he said. There was no evidence of foul play.

Savchenko was fishing the Sandy River with Olexander at Cedar Creek, not far from Sandy, on Oct. 31. Wearing fishing waders, the pair attempted to cross the river when the swift current caused them to topple over, according to Clackamas County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Strovink. They were simultaneously swept downriver in swift rapids.

The teenager was able to pull himself from the river about 300 yards from where he and his father were swept off their feet, Strovink said. Rescue personnel located Olexander Savchenko in good physical condition, but emotionally shaken and in shock.

Boats from the Sandy and Clackamas fire departments and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office traversed the river to Oxbow Regional Park, 13 miles downriver from where the two had been fishing.

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