“I’D BE IN THAT WATER”: A MOTHER’S FINAL HOURS OF HOPE FOR HER MISSING SON
“I’D BE IN THAT WATER”: A MOTHER’S FINAL HOURS OF HOPE FOR HER MISSING SON
For Angie Morey, the search for her 18-year-old son Matthew was not just another missing-person operation.
It was a race against a flooded river she desperately wanted to enter herself.
Matthew Morey, a recent Delta High School graduate and football standout, disappeared after jumping into the swollen Mississinewa River near Muncie, Indiana, with three friends.
His friends were rescued.
Matthew was not.
A RIVER TOO DANGEROUS TO ENTER
The flooding was so severe that rescue crews were initially unable to safely reach the area.
As the hours passed, Matthew’s mother was left watching from a distance, unable to do what every parent would instinctively want to do.
“I can’t get to him,” she told NBC News, while still holding onto the possibility that her son might be alive.
She said that if she had a boat, she would have gone into the water herself.
But the river was simply too dangerous.
THEN THE SEARCH ENDED IN TRAGEDY
Matthew remained missing while authorities waited for conditions to improve.
His body was eventually recovered over the weekend.
The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office confirmed his death and expressed condolences to Matthew’s family, friends and classmates.
He was just 18 years old.
And he had been preparing for an entirely different future.
A FUTURE THAT NEVER ARRIVED
Matthew had recently graduated from Delta High School, where he was known as a football player.
He was also planning to attend Purdue University in the fall.
Instead of preparing for college, his family was waiting for rescuers to find him.
That future ended in a matter of moments when the flooded river became the center of a tragedy affecting communities across central Indiana.
WHY DID THE TEENS ENTER THE RIVER?
One question remains particularly difficult:
Why did Matthew and his three friends jump into the raging river while flooding was underway?
The circumstances surrounding the decision have not been fully explained publicly.
His three friends survived.
Matthew did not.
Investigators now have the task of establishing exactly what happened during those final moments.
PART OF A MUCH LARGER FLOODING DISASTER
Matthew was among at least six people reported killed in severe flooding across Indiana.
More than a dozen counties declared disaster emergencies, while hundreds of residents were evacuated.
The flooding was serious enough that federal emergency assistance was approved for the state.
What happened to Matthew was therefore not an isolated incident.
It became one of the most heartbreaking stories from a dangerous weather disaster that swept through the region.
MORE THAN A HEADLINE
Behind the words “flood victim” was an 18-year-old who had just finished high school.
A football player.
A college-bound student.
A son whose mother refused to stop hoping even when the conditions made the search almost impossible.
And that may be the most painful part of this story.
While rescuers waited for the river to become safe enough to search, a mother was waiting for her son to come home.
He never did.
18 YEARS OLD.
LOST IN A FLOODED RIVER.
HIS MOTHER NEVER GAVE UP HOPE.
A COLLEGE FUTURE THAT WILL NEVER BEGIN.
Matthew Morey’s story is now part of the devastating toll from Indiana’s floods.
But for the people who knew him, he should be remembered as more than another name on a disaster list.
He was Matthew. He had a future. And his family was waiting for him.
Independent commentary based on current reporting. Details surrounding why the group entered the river remain subject to investigation.
