About 25 volunteers with La Plata County Search and Rescue and members of the La Plata County Sheriff's Office Regional Dive Team fanned across the Animas River just south of Santa Rita Park on Monday for a dual-purpose mission.
The effort was both a swiftwater training exercise and an attempt to locate evidence connected to the killing of Rodney D. Bellino, who was fatally shot in the park in October 2023. Three teenagers were also shot and injured in the incident.
Searchers gathered near the U.S. Highway 160 overpass along the Animas River Trail on Monday morning. They combed the banks of the river as well as the riverbed using small hand tools, magnets, drones and metal detectors, as well as snorkels and masks. They did not find any evidence connected to the shooting, Cmdr. Jacob Dunlop said Tuesday.
“We felt it was important to make a second effort to look for evidence in the Santa Rita Park shooting,” he said.
Law enforcement initially recovered spent shell casings, two handguns and an AR-15-style rifle from the scene, and say they may not be done combing the river.
One of the shooters pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced last month to 45 years in prison. A second alleged shooter, Kayden Jacob Hernandez, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and other felonies and has a trial scheduled for October.
Although almost a year and a half has passed since the shooting – and a runoff season has elapsed since the event – this wouldn’t be the first time that a lost item has turned up in the Animas River. In March 2023, a fisherman found a camera that contained wedding photos lost 13 years earlier.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
