AFD rescues man stuck days in river mud

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A school group on a Saturday field trip discovered a man yelling for help and saying he'd been stuck in the mud of the Rio Grande for three days.

The Albuquerque Fire Department launched a full rescue effort with the dispatch of seven units including technical and swiftwater rescue teams, an AFD spokesman said.

The discovery was made in the city's San Antonio Oxbow Open Space about 10:30 a.m. by a biology teacher and students from La Cueva High School.

They told KRQE News 13 the man, identified later as Clayton Senn, sounded disoriented, was asking for water and said he couldn't feel his legs.

Police said Senn was a homeless person who lived near the river and was wanted on a felony warrant alleging aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Rescuers found Senna on a reed island with his feet deep into mud and water and used a pulley system to extricate him.  He was placed in a Stokes litter and rafted back to land by 12:30 p.m.

"He's stating he was out there for five days," AFD Capt. Richard Collado said.  "There's no way to verify that, but he was out there in extremely cold.

"We had to bring out some blankets to him and some hot packs to try to initiate some warming procedures."

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and was expected to be taken to jail when he's released.

The open space is a former bend in the Rio Grande that is now a marshy wetland about two miles north of Interstate 40.

It is not yet known how the man came to be stuck in the reeds.