Conway family mourns loss of toddler swept away by Skagit River currents

Jessica White was walking alongside her son Austin as the 2-year-old rode a toy electric car near their Conway home near the Skagit River. She turned to say hello to a neighbor. 

The mother — she had given birth to a baby girl about a month earlier — had recently moved from California to her parents’ house, hoping for a fresh start. Austin, whose full name was Starr Austin Rogers-White, loved being in the little town about 50 miles north of Seattle. He got to go everywhere with his grandpa, and especially loved their tractor rides together. 

White turned back to her son. He was gone. 

His little car was found first, in the Skagit River. Hunters discovered his body offshore in Skagit Bay on Dec. 20, exactly three weeks after he first went missing. 

“Everything was looking great, and then this tragedy happened,” White’s father and Austin’s grandfather, Robert Ortega, said in a phone interview. “It’s an absolutely unfortunate situation.” 

Officials believe Austin fell in the river and do not suspect foul play, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement released the day the boy was found. 

That family has been amazed by an outpouring of support from the community, but also dismayed by critical comments they’ve read online about their family, Ortega said. Although he’s tried to shield his daughter and others from the remarks that are especially mean, it’s been difficult. Those comments have added to their grief as they plan his funeral, he added. 

Family members have “beat ourselves up over this, what they could have done,” he said. “Anyone who has an accident can look back and say ‘I could have done this or that.’ But it was simply an accident.” 

Rather than holding a funeral first, the family decided on a celebration for Austin on Christmas, which would have marked his third birthday. They had an orange cake, put up a banner of his name and released blue balloons. 

Attendees talked about the curious boy, who would constantly ask “Grandpa, what’s this? Grandpa, what’s that?” Ortega said. His grandfather was looking forward to watching him grow up and teaching him out to play baseball, he said before pausing to cry. 

“We were trying to turn this into something we could celebrate,” Ortega said. “We loved him so much.” 

A GoFundMe page set up to pay for funeral costs has raised about $3,200. The family plans to hold the funeral late next month.

This story was originally published December 31, 2018 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Conway family mourns loss of toddler swept away by Skagit River currents."