Sheriff: Child's drowning a 'terrible day'

Logan Rabon

By Jessie Burchette

jburchette@salisburypost.com

Sheriff's deputies searching Monday afternoon for a missing child feared the worst when a tracking dog followed the scent to the waters of High Rock Lake.

Searchers trying to find the 16-month-old boy looked along the shore. The dog handler quickly repeated the scent trail from the back door of Meagan and Travis Rabon's home twice more.

Each time, the dog went to the water.

Deputy Teresa Haupt stood on the pier and looked intently along the seawall, where debris had piled up from recent rains. She and other deputies had looked there minutes before and saw nothing.

This time, she spotted a hint of pink amid the debris.

Haupt quickly shed her gun and other gear and went into the chest-deep water.

Travis Rabon, the child's father, also jumped in to help bring his son out of the water.

After pulling Logan Scott Rabon from the lake, Haupt immediately began CPR. Another deputy started pumping air into the child's lungs. They continued while moving the child up the driveway, where a Rowan EMS unit arrived within minutes.

Deputies transported the distraught mother and father to Rowan Regional Medical Center, where doctors tried unsuccessfully to revive the child. Logan Scott Rabon was pronounced dead shortly after 4 p.m.

Acting Sheriff Kevin Auten, who was at the scene, described it as a terrible day for the Rabon family, law enforcement, rescue personnel and the community.

More than a few of the officers shed tears.

An early spring day went horribly wrong sometime after noon.

According to the Rowan County Sheriff's Office report, Meagan Rabon was inside the lakefront home at 710 Catfish Road on Panther Point.

When she noticed Logan was missing, she quickly searched the house and looked outside.

Unable to find him, she called 911, which dispatched deputies at 12:54 p.m.

When Deputy B.R. Williams arrived, Meagan Rabon was in the yard screaming her son's name and was very upset.

Williams and other deputies who arrived on the scene quickly searched inside the house and outside, including storage buildings, neighbors' properties and along the lake shore.

They found the child about 50 feet from the back door of the house the Rabons have lived in since 2007.

The mother had found the back door leading to a deck open during her search.

Haupt said the door was not dead-bolted and likely blew open on the breezy day.

Logan was born at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast on Nov. 18, 2008.