OGDEN, Utah — The day after 14-year-old Sam Creel died after falling through the ice at an Ogden pond, his parents described him as a curious, free-spirited teen who loved helping people and loved learning.
Creel and a 14-year-old friend were fishing at Glasmann Pond on Monday afternoon when both boys fell through the ice. While the teens were both pulled from the water, Creel later died after being airlifted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.
At the pond Tuesday, Sam's parents, Liana Larsen and stepfather Nathan Gidley, shared how police called them just before 5 p.m. to tell them he had fallen into the pond, and that he died before they were able to make it to the hospital.
Sam's parents said they returned to the pond to make sense of what had happened. They also shared that he was 14 years old, a year younger than officials had originally reported.
Creel, who had autism and did not know how to swim, told his grandfather that he was going to hang out with a friend after school. His parents said the friend was one they had never met before.
“We lost our little boy last night," Gidley said. "He didn’t tell us where he was going. He told grandpa that he was going to a friend’s house but that wasn’t where he was going.”
Creel, a ninth-grader at South Ogden Junior High School, wanted to become a police officer.
“He always came home,” Gidley added. “I’m going to miss him so much.”
A spotfund fundraising page and a GoFundMe have been set up to help the family following Sam's death.
