TRUMBULL -- A 21-month-old Trumbull boy who was swept down the rain-swollen Pequonnock River in the morning was pronounced dead early Wednesday night.
Tommy Chisholm had clung to his life through the afternoon at Bridgeport Hospital.
"Our medical team worked to revive this little boy for several hours," said John Cappiello, a hospital spokesman. "Unfortunately, they were not successful. This is a very sad outcome and our hearts go out to this boy's family."
Tommy, the son of Michael and Ruth Chisholm, of Lindberg Drive, was missing for nearly two hours before his unresponsive body was pulled out of Bunnell's Pond in Bridgeport, about a half-mile downstream.
His discovery ended a panicky search by dozens of police, fire, scuba and K-9 units from Trumbull, Shelton, Bridgeport, Monroe and Darien as well as by neighbors of the family.
The search began when Tommy's older sibling -- believed to be his stepsister in her 20s -- called 911 at about 10:42 p.m., according to Trumbull Police Chief Thomas Kiely.
"The child," Kiely said, "was playing near the river. The mother had just turned around for a matter of a minute, and the next thing she knew, the child was missing."
The mother jumped into the river in an attempt to rescue her son, but it's not known if she even had him in sight, police said.
Emergency responders and neighbors searched the river and the woods along its banks. K-9 units used one of the child's stuffed animals to get his scent -- a little white lamb with black button eyes.
The Chisholm's house, a ranch with an attached two-car garage, sits at the end of Lindberg Drive and borders the river. Michael Chisholm grew up in the house, neighbors said, and moved back in six or seven years ago.
The stretch of the Pequonnock beside the house is ordinarily placid and harmless, neighbors said, but it quickly turns angry after the kind of rainstorm that was seen in the early hours of Wednesday morning. About an inch of rain fell between midnight and 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
As the search progressed, the police dogs scoured the neighborhood and police asked owners of all of the cars parked in the neighborhood to open their trunks in hopes of finding the child alive and unharmed.
At one point, police and firefighters pulled two small blankets and a child's shirt from the river as it rushed past the thicket near the Chisholms' house.
Trumbull Center Fire Chief Ed Gratrix estimated that the river was flowing at about nine knots Wednesday morning. "It was difficult to even stand in," he said. A side-scan radar unit was called in from the State Police, Gratrix added, but the equipment wasn't deployed because the child was found.
"We called out all the resources that we could," Kiely added. "As many divers as we could get and as many K-9 units as we could get."
Ultimately, though, Bridgeport Parks Department employees spotted the child in Bunnell's Pond, a widened portion of the river at Beardsley Park. The workers had been told to be on the lookout for anything unusual.
According to witnesses, the child appeared lifeless as he was pulled from the water at about 12:30 p.m. He was transported by ambulance to Bridgeport Hospital.
"The family is distraught, as you can imagine," said Kiely. He added that the incident is being treated as a tragic accident.
"Our staff has been supporting the family throughout the day," added Cappiello. "Our social workers, our pastors and our staff have been in constant touch with the family, and we continue to do so even at this point."
First Selectman Tim Herbst commended the quick response of the Trumbull police and fire departments, and Chiefs Kiely and Gratrix for "putting together such a coordinated response." He also thanked the emergency services from neighboring communities and the state police for helping out.
Herbst said the town will do what it can to support the family: "We're Trumbullites, and we'll be here for them," he said.
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