January 9th is the worst day of our lives. It is a day that we can't ever get back. Our son, Kyle Doan was swept down the San Marcos Creek during the storms and we don't know where he is. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs began heavily searching while water levels were high in January. They deployed many different agencies and hosted searches up to around 300 searchers. However, searches slowed to a stop after early February with occasional fly-overs, small K9 teams that requires training, and ATV patrols. They claim that they support our family and have stated that they are planning a future large scale search. However, when the creek and river were dry in late February (the most opportune time), no more boots were on the ground and we were personally left to our personal untrained search efforts with the support of phenomenal community members who were also not experienced or trained with searches.

     Fast forward to March, we were very lucky to come into contact with a nationally certified K9 team. With the support of community members and donations, the K9 team pinpointed an area of interest. At that time, the creek and river were high due to unusual storm systems that continued to impact our state. They met with Sergeant Norris and verbally shared their findings. Shortly after their departure, the SLO Sheriffs planned a meeting with our family with the presence of the Office of Emergency Services, SLO Sheriffs heads, Monterey County Sheriffs heads, director of Fish and Game, and other state agencies. This meeting covered the search efforts that were completed in January as well as the geographical monitoring that was claimed to be completed through flyovers and ATV drive through. They also shared that when K9s were available and requested areas of trainings, they would occasionally direct them to the creek area. They stated at this time that a large scale search was being planned, but was unsure of a date. They then deployed their K9 team that Thursday and Saturday after the meeting and confirmed that they had similar hits in the creek. Their K9 team reached out to our K9 team to collaborate.

   In April, with the help of a talented excavator operator and a couple of volunteers, he was able to excavate the entire area of interest, but did not locate Kyle. We again questioned the SLO Sheriffs team about a timeline to which they responded again that a search date was not set, but that they were still planning a large scale search. In the meantime, we are currently working with our K9 team on redeploying them out here to relook at the creek and possibly river now that areas are dried up again. Unfortunately now in May, we still have no date from the SLO Sheriffs about their search timeline.

    We are quickly approaching 4 months. We’re not sure what it’s going to take for the sheriffs to finally put plans into action, but the creek is low enough to pump out areas of interest. There are dry areas for K9s to search. Throughout the duration of our tragedy, we have the support of the community and many across the state, nation, and world, but only empty words and promises from Governor Newsom and SLO Sheriffs. It is time. It’s time to step up and fulfill empty promises. We will not wait until summer ends for them to find Kyle. We all pay tax dollars and many people would like to see their tax dollars in play for Kyle’s search. We need the SLO Sheriff’s office and Governor Newsom to stop with the word play and excuses and do what they were elected and are being paid for.

     Please help us by showing these agencies that you support our efforts and demand that they physically start a search, rather than sit on their nice executive chairs just waiting until they feel like the time is right. The governor claims that the SLO Sheriffs have all the resources they need and the SLO Sheriffs claim that they have enough resources and entities to host a search. Tell them that it’s time to use them!

Thank you for your support,

Lindsy & Brian Doan