Michael “Mikey” White had planned on spreading his faith?s message in Texas and Mexico in August.
“Mikey attended youth group and helped to raise money at a car wash for a mission trip two weeks ago,” said Phil Morse, a member of Keymar Evangelical Wesleyan Church, which Michael attended.
The church sits less than a mile away from Little Pipe Creek, where the bodies of Michael, 14, and Thomas Plunkard, 16, both of Ladiesburg, were recovered Thursday, two days after they were reported missing following what police believe was a swim in the rain-swollen waters.
Two Frederick County men, who police identified as family friends, found Michael?s body at around 10:45 a.m. Thursday about 250 yards west of the creek?s dam, the location of a popular youth swimming hole where a rope swing hangs.
Michael is the son of Cheryl and Thomas White, police said.
About 10 youths from Michael?s youth group visited the river, prayed, hugged and cried.
Just before 2 p.m., Maureen Skroly, a volunteer with Chesapeake Search Dogs, a Towson-based search dog organization, discovered the body of Thomas about 5 miles farther downstream, where Little Pipe Creek, which flows along the Carroll-Frederick county line, meets Big Pipe Creek, state police First Sgt. Russell Newell said.
Authorities identified Thomas as the son of Kim and Lonnie Plunkard.
A helicopter, K-9 units, dozens of firefighters, police and volunteers from Carroll, Baltimore and Frederick counties participated in the recovery efforts along the creek, which rain had swollen to 50 feet wider and eight feet taller than usual, police said.
Water “may just look muddy, but it can get angry,” said Duane Ludwig of the Baltimore County Fire Department, who helped with the search.
Tony Cosner, of Keymar, said he likely was the last person to see the two teenagers alive.
“I saw them standing 10 feet from the dam, but then I heard on the scanner less than a half-hour later about the missing persons report,” Cosner said, looking at his own teenage sons standing on the bridge where Md. 194 spans Little Pipe Creek.
“My sons are almost the same age, so this hits too close to home.”
