A broken-down boat beached in the middle of nowhere on Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming coupled with piercing cold driving rain put a 3-year-old’s life in peril.
The actions of a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office deputy late on the night and early morning of July 20 - 21, 2010, not only saved the boy, but created a memory that for 15 years has resonated with him and his family.
That’s culminating in a special reunion this month that will mark a salient transition for both rescuer and the rescued, and the importance of that life-changing moment.
When David Lew walks with the Rock Springs High School Class of 2025 to get his diploma May 27, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Jeff Sheaman plans to be the one to give it to him — at Lew’s request.
“It’s really cool 15 years later to see how well he’s doing and to know that I made a huge impact in his life,” Sheaman said.
The law enforcement veteran said the moment for him will represent a positive closure for his 20-year career as the boy he saved steps into adulthood.
The nearly 18-year-old Lew has no clear recollection of his 3-year-old self and the events of that summer night, except a memory of “feeling cold” and “being wet.”
“That was something that was stuck in my head,” Lew said. “The story was just brought up during my childhood because it is something my parents look back on and are grateful that I am OK.”
But both Sheaman and Lew’s dad, Frank, recall the evening well.
Frank Lew said that he had David and an older son with him in the boat as they checked it out to purchase it. While skimming over the waters of the reservoir, the boat engine quit, and Frank was able to beach it. Frank had to climb up to the top of a hill to find cell service and call 911.
The department was able to pinpoint the coordinates of their location and dispatched the sheriff’s office river rescue craft with Sheaman and two sergeants manning it.
David Lew at 3 years old, the same year he was rescued on a cold bone-chilling July night while on the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin) 
David Lew said he knows that if it wasn’t for the actions of Sweetwater County Detective Sgt. Jeff Sheaman in July 2010, he probably wouldn’t be walking a graduation stage this month. (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin) 
David Lew is thankful to Sweetwater County Detective Sgt. Jeff Sheaman for the life ahead following his graduation from Rock Springs High School. “One decision that he made one night many years ago changed my life for the better and my whole family. It’s weird to think about it that way.” (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin) 
David Lew said he knows that if it wasn’t for the actions of Sweetwater County Detective Sgt. Jeff Sheaman in July 2010, he probably wouldn’t be walking a graduation stage this month. (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin) 
David Lew is thankful to Sweetwater County Detective Sgt. Jeff Sheaman for the life ahead following his graduation from Rock Springs High School. “One decision that he made one night many years ago changed my life for the better and my whole family. It’s weird to think about it that way.” (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin) 
David Lew at 3 years old, the same year he was rescued on a cold bone-chilling July night while on the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. (Courtesy Frank Lew and Mishelle Cuin)
Sound Of Rattlesnakes
Frank Lew said by the time he made the call it was pitch black and they had to walk back down the gorge to the boat with the sound of rattlesnakes all around them.
Deputies launched their boat from Firehole Canyon 29 miles southwest of Rock Springs and followed the coordinates to reach the Lews fairly quickly.
But just as they arrived severe wind and rain began pelting them. The rescue boat’s propeller hit a sandbar, and when rescuers with the Lews inside their boat set off back toward Firehole, they were moving extremely slowly due to engine issues.
The rain continued cold and unrelenting as they tried to navigate back to their launch site.
“Where they broke down was in the middle of nowhere, there was nowhere you could go to get cover,” Sheaman said. “We had spotlights, but you couldn’t see anything, the GPS was all over the place, it was kind of surreal.”
Frank Lew was holding David, and David’s arms were wrapped around his dad’s neck. At one point the dad called out to his son and there was no response and Frank Lew kind of panicked.
Frank Lew tried to lift his son, but the little boy’s arms were locked around his neck, and he lifted him off “like a T-shirt” and handed the unresponsive and unconscious boy to Sheaman.
Sheaman said he removed the boy’s life vest and shirt, took off his own jacket and shirt and placed the boy skin-to-skin to his own body inside his shirt and zipped the jacket around them both and started rubbing his back.
‘Cocooned’
“I just remember when I put him against me, he was like a popsicle and he was unresponsive,” Sheaman said. “I just started rubbing his back and then just held him and cocooned him.”
After about 15 or 20 minutes, Sheaman said he felt David moving and unzipped his jacket a little. David pulled up his head and looked at him and sort of panicked at seeing this stranger.
Sheaman handed him back to his dad who held him the short distance left to the Firehole launch and a waiting ambulance.
David was taken to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia and Sheaman said he and one of the sergeants also ended up spending time in the hospital for treatment due to the cold as well.
The entire trip back from the broken-down boat in the rain and wind took about an hour-and-a-half, Sheaman said. He said the experience that summer day made him colder than all the winters and 20-below days in his years of responding to calls.
“I’ve been on this Earth 49 years and that’s the coldest I’ve ever been,” he said.
Frank Lew characterized Sheaman’s actions as “heroic.”
“He did what he had to do to save my son, and he did,” he said.
Following the rescue, Sheaman said doesn’t recall seeing the boy again until meeting his mother, Mishelle Cuin, in a pet store in 2020. She called David over. The teen remembers shaking Sheaman’s hand.
“One decision that he made one night many years ago changed my life for the better and my whole family,” David Lew said. “It’s weird to think about it that way.”
A Rock Springs newspaper from November 2010 includes photos of a young David Lew as then Deputy Jeff Sheaman was honored for his rescue efforts. (Courtesy Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office) 
The rescue of a 3-year-old boy from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in 2010 was reported by local newspapers in southwest Wyoming. (Courtesy Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office)
A Request
As graduation approached, David Lew said he and his mom talked about honoring his rescuer by asking Sheaman to hand him his diploma.
Cuin, who characterizes David as a “quiet kid,” said she left the decision up to him, but said over the years from time to time the rescue would come up in conversation and the important role of law enforcement in the community.
After their graduation talk, David told her: “I wouldn’t walk across the stage if it wasn’t for Jeff.”
Cuin worked with school officials get approval for the special handoff.
The teen went to the sheriff’s department with a special handwritten request letter about the graduation ceremony and gift for Sheaman — a framed graduation photo.
“Out of all the people he could have asked, I’m grateful he wants me there by his side on graduation day,” Sheaman said. “In this line of work, you see a lot — some of it good, some of it crazy, and some of it heartbreaking. David reminds me of the good we can do.”
David’s request came after Sheaman had earlier this year responded to a fatal crash at the Green River tunnels and discovered those involved were people he knew.
He said the incident made him decide to put his retirement thoughts into action. But when David approached him, it made the retirement decision much more positive.
David Lew said when he receives the diploma from Sheaman, it will be a personal moment for them both.
“I’m not concerned about how I look to the crowd or how I am different,” he said. “This is something more for the man who saved my life, and I’m not concerned what maybe my peers or someone in the crowd may think.”
The teen said his plans are to attend community college — he has no definite career goal in mind yet.
Sheaman, as he winds up his career in law enforcement, is in the same kind of place. He plans to retire on May 9 and be in town to give David the diploma on May 27. Travel is on the agenda after that and then he’ll see what comes next.
“I’ve had a great career,” he said. “I could have retired with a full heart, but when David came in and gave me that letter, I was like, ‘That’s even better.’”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
