Parents of 5-Year-Old Boy Swept Away in Calif. Flood Share His Final Sweet Words to His Mom
Inside Edition/CBS
The parents of Kyle Doan, who went missing after being swept away by severe California flood waters, have spoken out.
His mother, who was driving the kindergartner to school that morning, has revealed his last words before he was overtaken by the stormwater.
Kyle and his mother were on their way to school, where his mom is a teacher, when their vehicle got stuck around 7:45 a.m. on Monday.
Witnesses were able to pull his mother out of the car, however, Kyle began to go downstream. Authorities suspect he headed toward a nearby river. At the time, there were no road closures in the area.
Lindsy Doan recalled the moment her 5-year-old son was pulled from her arms, in an interview with Inside Edition Wednesday.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office
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"The current kept pulling me down. And every time I gasped and I looked up he was looking at me," said Lindsy, who was joined by her husband and Kyle's father, Brian Doan.
Asked if Kyle said anything to his mother as she struggled to get him out of their vehicle, Lindsy said, "When we crashed his last words to me were 'Mommy it's gonna be okay. Just be calm and it's gonna be okay.' "
She recalled that she and Kyle had no choice but to get out of their car as it became submerged.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office
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"She's in the water, my son's in the water ahead of her. She's trying to fight debris in the water as she's getting pushed and pulled down," Brian told the outlet.
Lindsy said she's received compassion from others, who have told her, "You can't blame yourself. You need to stop thinking about what-ifs and stuff. But it's really hard, and it's going to take a really long time."
Monday marked Kyle's first day back to school, and on social media, Lindsy acknowledged the difficulty of finding her son.
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"I know this is a long shot," she wrote on Facebook, per Inside Edition. "He has not been found. Our hearts are broken. He is without food, shelter... if anyone sees him, please PLEASE contact 911. We are at a loss."
Authorities resumed their search for Kyle on Tuesday. The day before, they were forced to stop looking for him after a five-hour search due to dangerous weather conditions that "were making it unsafe for first responders to continue their efforts," per a previous news briefing from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office.
It added that the weather is still "extremely dangerous" and urged residents "not to conduct self-initiated searches and put themselves in harms way and become a victim requiring resources that would otherwise be used for searching."
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Cambria Community Services District Fire Chief Justin Vincent previously told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo that authorities have only found a child's shoe at the scene.
Kyle is described as having short dirty blond hair, hazel eyes, and stands at 4 feet tall. He weighs 52 pounds. When he vanished, Kyle was wearing a black puffer jacket with a red liner, blue jeans, along with blue and gray Nike tennis shoes, according to the police's press release.
San Miguel Joint Union School District Superintendent Karen Grandoli confirmed to PEOPLE that Lindsy is a teacher at and Kyle attends Lillian Larsen Elementary School.
She said in a part in a statement, "San Miguel is a small, very close-knit community and everyone has the family in their thoughts and prayers during this unfathomable tragedy. The family and others are continuing to search for him in hopes that he might be found."
