Ceremony honors missing 8-year-old

Oregonian
Portland, Oregon
October 21, 2006

CRATER LAKE -- On a brilliant day when Crater Lake could display its natural splendor, Sammy Boehlke's family gathered to show their love for the missing 8-year-old.

Kirston Becker, Sammy's mother, told family members and others that the point of the small ceremony Saturday in Crater Lake National Park was to recognize that the formal search for her son had come to an end.

"It has been an excruciating and horrific experience," Becker said in a phone interview earlier in the day.

Then, she praised the bravery, kindness and humaneness of the rescuers.

"We don't have resolution," she said. "Ambiguity is difficult, but the land here is very beautiful, but nature takes away. It looks like this time it took Sam."

The small group gathered about 11:30 a.m. at Cleetwood Cove on Rim Drive, near the spot where Sammy was last seen Oct. 14. The group included about a dozen family members, including two of Sammy's aunts, and six Klamath Tribes ceremonial drummers.

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