Upstate New York Boy, 13, Dies After Getting Buried By Snow While Building A Fort With Friend

A 13-year-old boy died Tuesday after he and his friend were both buried under a large snow mound in upstate New York. Joshua J. Demarest had been building a snow fort at the same time a Department of Public Works truck was plowing snow in the area, according to multiple reports.

The second boy, Tyler J. Day, was found a few minutes after Demarest. Day, 12, was conscious and reactive and was taken to a local hospital. He was able to tell investigators he had heard the sound of machinery before everything went dark, according to local reports.

Greenwich-Cambridge Police Chief George Bell said it remained unclear whether the two boys were buried by the plow from the truck or if the snow fort they were making collapsed on them.

The boys were reported missing to local police around 5 p.m. Tuesday after a public-works truck left the area. They had been playing in a snow bank on a dead-end street in Greenwich, New York, which is about a three-hour drive north of New York City.

A K-9 unit found the boys’ sled close to the snow mound.

A shoveling crew dug through the snow to find Demarest unresponsive. While first responders rushed the seventh grader to a local hospital after failing to resuscitate him at the scene, Demarest was pronounced dead shortly after 10 p.m., the Associated Press reported.

The cause of the incident is still being investigated by local police, Bell said.