Missing Person in Cucamonga Creek in Chino
February 18 and 21, 2026
Cucamonga Creek in Chino
Mission 2026-007
Written by: Richard Yocum
It was noon on Wednesday when RMRU was activated to assist with the search for someone washed away in flood waters due to recent heavy rains. At about 2 pm on Monday a bystander had phoned 911 to report an adult male a few blocks north of the I-10 in San Bernardino (SB) County being washed down the Cucamonga Creek flood channel. Chino FD quickly launched their drone and tracked the victim in the channel, having passed under two freeways, underneath the runways of Ontario Airport, and through a corner of Riverside County until he disappeared under the water’s surface about 150 feet before the channel re-entered SB County, more than 9 miles from where he was initially reported. The creek then traversed about 2 miles of SB County before re-entering Riverside County. It was agreed that this mission would be conducted under a Unified Command structure and include Riverside County Sheriff’s Office (RSO) and SAR, (SB) Sheriff and SAR, and Chino PD and Fire. There was no report of a missing person, and the identity of the victim was unknown.
For RMRU’s first operational period (OP) on 2/18, the SB Co. Sheriff’s Dept. (SBCSD) SAR had searched both that day and the day prior. With little remaining daylight by the time I arrived mid-afternoon, most of the effort that day was sharing all available information among the multiple agencies and planning next efforts. A decision was made to plan for a major ground team effort on Saturday and continue aerial searching in the interim. RMRU then conducted pre-planning sessions, first with RMRU and Riverside County Search Dogs, and then with SBSDSAR, to coordinate efforts for OP2.
The OP2 search on 2/21 was extensive and involved ground SAR teams and Human Remains Detection (HRD) canine teams searching both sides of the river in both counties, drones and RSO Rescue 9 helicopter searching by air, RSO Dive Team searching by boat and in the river, and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) searching a long underground overflow culvert. The creek empties into the huge Prado Flood Control Basin and there was about 2.5 square miles of flooded basin at the time of our search. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate our victim, who could be trapped underwater, hidden in very dense vegetation along the creek, or be virtually anywhere in the huge, flooded basin. Pending a full after-action review, there was consideration of returning in several months for another search effort when the basin would be largely dried up.
RMRU Members Involved: (Alex Cochran, Kase Chong, Matt Frenken, Michael George, Glenn Henderson, Eric Holden, Dave Kosmal, William Pendleton, Ray Weden, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: (Riverside Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (SERT), Aviation, and Dive Team; Riverside County Search Dogs; Desert Sheriff’s SAR; SBCSD SAR; and Chino PD and Chino Fire including drones)