Last Victim of Christmas Flood Found

Four months after a Christmas Day flash flood slammed into a campsite in the San Bernardino Mountains, killing 14 members of a church group, the skeletal remains of the last missing victim have been found 15 miles away.

The remains of 11-year-old Edgar David Meza of San Bernardino were discovered Monday morning by a work crew clearing bamboo along the Santa Ana River bed about a mile west of La Cadena Drive in Colton. The San Bernardino County coroner used dental records to make the identification Tuesday. Search-and-rescue teams found the first 13 victims within a week of Christmas and no farther than 4.6 miles from the campsite, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Since Jan. 1, authorities had conducted four full-scale searches for the missing boy, using trained dogs and a sheriff’s mounted posse. But those searches mostly focused on an area above a catch basin about four miles from the campsite.

Robert “Rocky” Shaw, the coroner’s lead supervising deputy, said he was convinced that the flash flood carried the boy’s body the entire 15 miles.

“I’m again overwhelmed by Mother Nature’s force and wrath -- that it could sweep this young man away to this area,” Shaw said.

Edgar’s father, Ramon Meza Sr., 29, and his uncle, Jose Carlos Camacho, 33, were also killed in the mudslide. But his teenage brother, Ramon Meza Jr., survived.

The flood came Christmas afternoon as an estimated 4 inches of rain pounded the Old Waterman Canyon area, which was surrounded by hillsides charred in October’s wildfires. A group of 24 friends and family from Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia Church in San Bernardino came to the campsite to share tamales at a gathering hosted by Camp St. Sophia caretaker Jorge Monzon, who also was killed, along with his wife and three children.

“At the time it happened,” said sheriff’s spokesman Chip Patterson, “I didn’t think we’d find all the bodies. Most were either buried under mud, rocks or trees, or washed great distances away. Now that we have found Edgar, hopefully this will help the families move on.”

A family member reached by phone at the home of Edgar’s mother, Dunia, said she was “very upset” and didn’t want to discuss the discovery of her son’s remains.

Shaw, whose agency led the search for Edgar, said he kept the boy’s Curtis Middle School photo ID pass on his desk.

“I looked at it every day, and it’s been on my mind every day that we couldn’t get him back to his family,” Shaw said. “I was happy to give the [school pass] back to [Dunia Meza] today.”

Before the finding of Edgar’s remains, a coroner’s official said the agency had taken steps to acquire a court-ordered death certificate for the boy.

“We had discussions in the days after the mudslide in which we suspected anyone, especially one of the children, could be carried many, many miles,” Patterson said.

“Still, this illustrates how immense and amazing this event was.”