Parents left grieving after toddler drowns in Montana
By Gillian Slade on January 5, 2019.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade The family of a little boy from Walsh are grieving his loss after he drowned in a river. Joey and Leah Hofer and their family from Spring Creek Colony in Walsh were spending some time in Montana over the Christmas season. In the afternoon of New Year’s Eve they were preparing to walk to the main kitchen for a meal at another colony. The children were dressed for a walk and in a short time the children had gone off, his grandmother Mary Ann Stahl told the News on Friday. They were frantically looking for them when one of the children came running back from the river, about 500 feet away. “She said that Bryce walked out on the ice … He slipped and fell into the river, ” said Stahl. On Thursday afternoon his body was retrieved from the river, she said. Someone in the colony had been patrolling the river and was able to lift him from the water. Bryce had celebrated his third birthday on Dec. 19 and was a little boy that was full of life and “cuteness” itself, said Joey Hofer, Bryce’s father. The family are hurt by comments on social media that the children should have been supervised. “You know how kids are, especially three-year-olds,” said Hofer. “They like to get out and get into other stuff. It is still devastating.” The family believe it was God’s time to take Bryce and that provides some comfort in their grief. “He will be missed so much,” said Hofer. 12
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