Search continues for 6-year-old after fishing trip ends with mother dead

AMESBURY, M.A. (WLNE) — Massachusetts State Police continued their search Saturday to recover the 6-year-old swept into the Merrimack River earlier this week.

12divers from the Massachusetts State Police Recovery Unit, along with four boat operators from the Department’s Marine Unit and divers from the Boston Fire Department are searching for 6-year-old Mas DeChhat.

Massachusetts State Police said DeChhat’s mother, 29-year-old Boua DeChhat, of Lowell drowned Thursday night after entering the swift current of the Merrimack River in an attempt to save her 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. The family had been fishing and swimming on Deer Island, a recreational area accessible by a road that juts into the river in Amesbury, near the Newburyport line.

According to a statement from state police, Mas, who was on land at the water’s edge Thursday night, had reached for a stick in the water. The boy fell in fell in and began to be pulled away by the swift current. His sister tried to grab him and she, too, fell into the water and began to pulled by the current. Boua, who was not known to swim, entered the water to save her children. All three family members were carried upstream in a westerly direction toward the nearby Whittier Bridge. By this time the father had returned to the water’s edge, saw his daughter and wife in the water, and entered the water himself to try to reach them. The father also was not a swimmer, could not reach his loved ones, and began to struggle himself. He made it back toward shore and grabbed a rock. He managed to exit the river and was transported to Seabrook Hospital for exposure/hypothermia.

Mrs. DeChhat and her daughter were pulled from the water by a boat operator and brought to shore. They were transported to Anna Jacques Hospital, where Boua DeChhat was pronounced deceased and her daughter was treated and released.

Saturday, divers used sidescan sonar – a device deployed from the side of a boat which uses sound waves to map and detect objects and anomalies in the water column and on the bottom. If an object is detected, divers descend upon it to investigate.