PORTLAND, Ore. — The mother of a 4-year-old boy whose body was pulled from the Willamette River hours before daybreak on Saturday has been arrested and accused of dumping her son and 7-year-old daughter off a bridge.
Portland police said 31-year-old Amanda Jo Stott-Smith was taken into custody on the ninth floor of a downtown parking garage around 7 a.m. Saturday.
She threatened to jump off a ledge when officers arrived, said Detective Sgt. Rich Austria of the Portland Police Bureau.
Stott-Smith was facing aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder charges, Austria said.
Rescuers were unable to revive the boy, Eldon Jay Rebhan Smith, who drowned. The girl remained in an area hospital Saturday night, Austria said, and was expected to survive.
"She's doing well," the detective said. "She has the will to live."
Police did not release her name Saturday night and said they had not yet questioned her about the incident.
Police said Stott-Smith's car, a blue 1991 Audi, was seen parked on the Sellwood Bridge before residents of the area heard the children's screams and a massive search was launched.
A couple who live in the area and joined the search in their boat found the children in the darkness nearly an hour after screams that moved downstream with the current were heard.
"Had they not been awake at one in the morning," Austria said, "we would investigating a case here with no children."
Officers were called to the Sellwood Bridge area around 1:20 a.m. after the screams were reported by residents.
Upon arrival, officers also heard screams on the river but could not locate their source because of the early morning darkness, said Officer Greg Pashley, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman.
Portland Fire Bureau and Multnomah County River Patrol boats also responded to the scene with suburban Milwaukie police. The U.S. Coast Guard sent a helicopter to assist in the search.
"As you look down into the darkness it's hard to see anything," Pashley said. "I can't imagine what it must be like to be a child in this cold river."
Austria said information from family members and a missing persons report the father filed with Tualatin police helped authorities identify the children.
reference: foxnews.com
Another Article from www.oregonlive.com
Woman, 31, arrested after one child drowns, one rescued from Willamette
by Noelle Crombie & Elizabeth Suh, The Oregonian Saturday May 23, 2009, 8:45 PM
Officers Tom Pennington (left) and Mitchell Orellana of the Portland Police Bureau's Central Precinct search the banks of the Willamette River south of the Sellwood Bridge on Saturday morning. Two children were heard screaming in the river near the bridge around 1:30 am. A boater rescued them; one died, the other is in the hospital.A 31-year-old woman faces charges of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder after her two young children were found in the Willamette River shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday. One of the children, a 4-year-old boy, died.
Amanda Jo Stott-Smith's 7-year-old daughter survived. The girl is conscious and in serious condition at an area hospital, Portland police said at a news conference this evening.
"She's doing very well, actually," said Detective Rich Austria of the Portland Police Bureau.
Police identified the boy tonight as Eldon Jay Rebhan Smith.
A massive search was launched about 1:20 a.m. when 9-1-1 calls started coming in from people who heard the screams of children and an adult woman coming from the river.
Police said tonight that they think the children either fell from or were pushed from the Sellwood Bridge into the river below.
Stott-Smith was found this morning shortly after 10 a.m. on the ninth floor of a parking garage at Fifth Avenue and Yamhill Street, police said. When officers approached her, she attempted to jump off the parking garage, and they stopped her, police said.
Police said Stott-Smith drives a 1991 dark blue, four-door Audi, and they are asking for the public's help in case anyone saw a car matching that description on the bridge about 1 a.m. Saturday morning. Driver's license records list Stott-Smith's most recent address as Tualatin, but it's not clear if that's where she currently lived.
The children's father reported them missing Friday night to Tualatin police. According to Portland police, Stott-Smith and the children's father share custody. Police did not identify the father.
Detectives confirmed the children's identities based on information given by family members.
The 7-year-old girl was in the water at least 30 minutes, police said.
"She's got the will to live. At 1 a.m., being in the water so long, your guess is as good as mine," Austria said.
An autopsy performed today indicated drowning was the cause of Eldon's death.
Officers arrived within minutes of area residents reporting screams. They heard the screams, too, but could not tell where they were coming from, said Officer Greg Pashley of the Portland Police Bureau. The noise moved with the current, from the Sellwood Bridge toward downtown, for about 50 minutes until a resident, who took out a boat after hearing the noise, found the children about a half-mile north of the bridge, Pashley said.
The boater took the children to a dock near the Oregon Yacht Club on the river's east bank about 2:10 a.m. A police officer radioed that the boy was dead, and an ambulance took the girl to a hospital. Police would not release information on where she went or her condition.
Local police, fire and U.S. Coast Guard boats and a helicopter were part of the search, but Pashley said he did not know whether any police boats had reached the scene by the time the boater found the children. Sheriff's river patrol deputies work until midnight and had to be called from home to respond.
Pashley did not have more details on who the boater was or where the person came from.
"It must have been horrible to go through whatever those children went through," Pashley said.
Storie Mooser, who lives in the RiverPark condominiums just north of the Sellwood Bridge, said he was awakened by a helicopter hovering low and searchlights sweeping both shorelines. "I got my binoculars," he said, and saw what looked like a sheriff's boat, a Coast Guard boat and a line of police cars on the bridge.
At the Oregon Yacht Club - a community of more than 40 floating homes just north of Oaks Amusement Park - residents said they, too, were awakened by the search but had not seen the rescue boat.
Beverly Patterson, who said she's lived there for 45 years, said neighbors have been glued to their TVs waiting for more information.
"It just makes my heart sick, and it's so close to home," she said.
A light sleeper, Mooser said he hears everything that goes on along the river, which is literally his backyard. One time a guy jumped off the Sellwood Bridge, trying to evade police; and police are often searching through the brush for items thrown from the bridge. "It becomes pretty routine here," he said.
