Police Seek Bail Jumper After He Saved a Boy's Life

Aug. 26, 2010— -- When Eric Hemenway saved a 15-year-old boy from drowning in an Oregon lake, he didn't want to be hailed a hero or receive the award he'd been promised by police. To ensure his name didn't appear in the paper, he gave rescue workers a false one – Craig Hemmengway.

But it wasn't modesty that kept this good Samaritan from admitting his identity; it was fear of arrest. Hemenway is a wanted man and would have slipped back into anonymity had his proud grandmother not alerted a local newspaper and television station that they had gotten her hero grandson's name wrong.

Cops now are looking for Hemenway, first to arrest him for skipping out on court fees following a 2005 DUI conviction – and then to present him with an award for saving the life of Jason Nguyen, 15.

"I didn't know they would be printing my name as a hero. I just thought I was doing what everyone should do," Hemenway, 33, told the Oregonian before going underground. "Now I'm going to go to jail because I saved some kid's life."

Hemenway rescued Nguyen on August 14, when the boy slipped under the surface of Detroit Lake, 60 miles outside Salem, Ore. Nguyen and his brother were swimming from an island in the middle of the lake 200 feet back to shore, when the boy began flailing and went under. Hemenway saw Nguyen drowning, swam out to him and dove 15 feet to grab the unconscious sinking teen.

With the help of two other bystanders, one of whom was an off duty police officer, they gave the boy CPR until paramedics arrived.

After several days in the hospital, Nguyen was released and is doing well.

"He gave deputies his name and date of birth, and of course we had no other reason than to think he's just a good Samaritan," said Don Thomson, spokesman for the Marion County Sheriff's Office. "We wanted to make sure we got his name spelled right, because we felt like this was a good, warm story and wanted to put out a press release."

"We wanted to get a hold of him to make sure we had everything right and invite him to receive the Sheriff's life savers award," said Thompson, but a call to a local television station changed the reason police sought him out.