Tory Raether and his wife Jean floating the Snake River shortly before Tory drowned after jumping into the water at Jump Rock. COURTESY PHOTO/JEAN RAETHER

Following a weeklong search that began on Independence Day, the body of Tory J. Raether, a 55-year-old man from Charlotte, North Carolina, was recovered by Star Valley Search & Rescue. Campers along McCoy Creek Road spotted Raether in Palisades Reservoir on Saturday, July 11. He had been missing since jumping into the Snake River east of Alpine on July 4.

“It takes a toll on the searchers because we are out there for so long,” explained Commander Matt McMurdo with Star Valley Search & Rescue. “We get frustrated because we’re not able to find him right away. We want to bring closure to his family as quickly as possible.

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The initial call for help came in at roughly 7:00 p.m. on July 4, right after S&R began their annual Ranch Rodeo at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds, the biggest fundraiser of the year for the volunteer organization.

“On this insurance it happened at our Ranch Rodeo, so we had pretty much everybody in Afton,” continued McMurdo during a live interview on SVI Radio. “We left 15 people at the Ranch Rodeo and we sent 25 people to Alpine to try and locate Tory.”

Raether had been floating the Snake River towards Alpine, with his party made up of family and friends decided to stop at a location known as Jumping Rock, a popular place to jump into the river, located east of the Sheep Gulch Boat Ramp roughly 3 ½ miles from Alpine. Raether, who had been wearing a life jacket previously, jumped into the water without his life jacket on. When he began to struggle against the river’s current, other members of his party attempted to save him but were unsuccessful. Rather disappeared under the water and was not seen again until the recovery of his body.

Upon initial arrival at the scene, Star Valley Search & Rescue looked for Raether using a jet boat, rafts and jet skis. They searched until nightfall. Search operations resumed the next morning with multiple drones, boats, rafts, jet skis and jet boats. However, there was no sign of Raether. McMurdo said volunteers continued to search the river and reservoir throughout the week, even calling in the service of specially trained river Cadaver Dogs, but with no success.

Then finally, shortly before noon on July 11, a call was placed by campers saying they had found a body floating in the reservoir. “At that time we were actually still on the river trying to locate him,” said McMurdo. “We had guys out on the Palisades on jet skis. They were probably within a ¼ of a mile at the time. We ended up launching the jet boat right there in Alpine when we got that call.”

“When we get those kinds of calls it’s a relief to the group,” concluded McMurdo. “We know we’ve finally brought closure to the family.”

“As always, they do a great job and are committed to what they are doing,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson of the Star Valley Search & Rescue. “In this case they were out every day since the incident trying to find Tory.”