Authorities have released the incident report and 911 calls about the 16-year-old boy who died while hiking with a Boy Scout group in Picacho Peak State Park in late April.
About 8 a.m. on April 27, the group — six scouts and two scoutmasters — began hiking the Sunset Trail and reached the top about 12:30 p.m., according to a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office incident report obtained by the Star on Wednesday.
The department was dispatched about 1:30 p.m. after someone from the group called for help.
“I was advised that they were out of water and approximately one mile in from the trailhead,” a responding deputy wrote in the report.
On the way down the trail, the boy collapsed and was helped up by other scouts. The boy collapsed again about 100 yards farther down the trail and did not get back up, the report said.
The boy was pronounced dead by Avra Valley Fire District shortly before 2:30 p.m. He has been identified as Joshua White from Goodyear, according to The Associated Press.
A PCSO deputy was told White had two quarts of water with him on the start of the hike but was out of water by the time the group reached the top.
He was “refilled by the scoutmasters at the time,” the report said.
According to one of the 911 calls, the entire group had run out of water by the time the call for help was placed.
When the call was made, White was breathing.
“Two of our scouts ran out of water. We shared our water. We’re now all out of our water,” the caller told the 911 operator, adding that the rest of the group was already at the trailhead near their cars.
“We desperately need water,” the caller later said.
An additional 911 call was placed by a different caller, who said that one of the scoutmasters was also having heat-related problems. The scoutmaster did not need medical assistance, the report said.
The cause of White’s death has not yet been released.
White was part of the Boy Scouts of America Grand Canyon Council in the Phoenix area, according to Scout Executive Andy Price.
“This is a very difficult time for our Scouting family. We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our youth members,” Price said in an emailed statement last week.
