RECORD STAFF

Elijah Gene Spratt was cooling off in the Stillaguamish River on Sunday when he was swept downstream and drowned.

Elijah was 10.

The former Langley boy grew up on Whidbey Island. He played football for the South Whidbey Falcons in the South Whidbey Youth Football League. Elijah recently completed fourth grade in Arlington.

According the Daily Herald in Everett, while on a summer outing with his foster family at Twin Rivers Park in Arlington Elijah was swimming in the river without a life jacket. Just before 4 p.m., he was swept downstream for about a half mile.

About an hour later he was found by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office from a helicopter and recovered by rescue divers. He was taken to Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington where he died.

The foster family assumed custody of Elijah when he was about eight.