Teen's Death In Raging River Haunts Rescuers

LOS ANGELES - Haunted by the panicked face of young Adam Bischoff as he was swept away in roiling brown waters the day before, calling for help, dozens of onlookers made a pilgrimage back to the same Los Angeles River bank yesterday, some simply unable to believe the young man was dead.

But there, on a sandy berm exposed as the storm receded, were the coroner's investigators. Fifteen-year-old Adam Paul Bischoff, after passing dozens of potential rescuers who threw him ropes, garden hoses and inflatable rafts, apparently succumbed just 100 feet downstream from a railroad trestle where he was last sighted Wednesday morning.

"I don't think there's ever been anything that's bothered me as much as this," said Joel Price, a veteran Los Angeles Police homicide detective, as he stood near the banks of the river where Bischoff's body was found. "I saw it happen. I feel as though there should have been something else I could have done."

As the latest storm stalked off in a fury of lightning and thunder, dozens of volunteer and professional searchers headed out into muddy riverbanks, up mountain peaks loaded dangerously with snow and out over an ocean stained brown by a week of weather the likes of which few Southern Californians could remember.

The drying skies gave way to the grim searches for lost victims that seem inevitably to come with the cyclical disasters of nature.

For the searchers caught up in the heart-wrenching dramas and

disappointments of yesterday, it was part and parcel of a job whose frustrations and rewards are large.

"When you're out there, all you do is concentrate on your job, try to put a body in a body bag," said Lt. Arve Wells of the sheriff's department of Ventura County. "But when you have time to reflect, you wonder. Who was he? Where was he when it happened? And, I guess, could it have been me?"

High on Mount Baldy, east of Los Angeles, a dramatic search and rescue attempt continued as sheriff's deputies widened their search for two experienced skiers missing since late Tuesday.

In Ventura, where a flood wiped out a riverbed settlement known as "Hobo Jungle" and washed away trailers in a recreational vehicle park, sheriff's helicopter crews came back empty-handed.

The most compelling story was of young Adam, an affable athlete and 10th-grader from El Camino Real High School.

It was a death everyone could see coming and yet no one could seem to prevent.

Television cameras captured his fear as the high school sophomore struggled to stay above the turbulent muddy waters of the Los Angeles River. Yesterday, the river had slowed, but trees bent to the ground bore testimony to the force of the current the day before.

Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Don Kitchen said he had avoided assigning the same officers to search for the body who had just one day before tried to save young Bischoff's life. "I felt they had been through enough as it was," he said.

Price, as a homicide detective, however, was back. He could not help but relive the awful moment when the young athlete passed by and wonder if there was something else he could have done.

In trying and failing to reach the pole, Adam let go of a log he was using for a flotation device.

The body was transported to a Los Angeles Fire Department van and positively identified by Bischoff's father, David, who arrived at the scene about 11 a.m. Eyes downcast, he stood at the riverbanks for about five minutes, near the spot his son's body was found.

"I just want to thank rescue workers who tried to save my son," Bischoff said. "Thank you very much."