Four months after an 11-year-old boy was swept away with 15 other people during Christmas Day flooding in San Bernardino, the boy's skeleton was discovered in the Santa Ana River, 15 miles from where he disappeared.

"It is an answered prayer," said Dunia Meza, mother of Edgar David Meza, speaking in Spanish.

She learned Monday that a boy's body had been found, and his identity was confirmed through dental records Tuesday.

"It was sad, because I missed him, but happy because I know he's in a better place," she said.

"The tremendous velocity of the water ... moved this (boy) to this location," San Bernardino County Lead Supervising Deputy Coroner Rocky Shaw said Tuesday. "It's incredible to think that 15 miles downstream and four months and a day later we would finally (find) our last victim of this tragedy."

A weed-clearing crew discovered the remains Monday in the brush-covered and mostly dry riverbed in Colton, near a duck farm and a tiger rescue facility about a mile west of La Cadena Drive.

"They were walking through the area with sprayers, and they observed the skeletal remains on the ground," Shaw said.

The nearly compete skeleton included the skull, spine, pelvis and both upper legs, he said.

Because the remains matched the general description of the missing boy, coroner's officials notified Edgar's mother and obtained his dental records. A forensic dentist confirmed the identification shortly after noon Tuesday.

Trees and branches littered the area, Shaw said, providing mute testimony to the force of the water that apparently transported the body from Waterman Canyon at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, through San Bernardino to the discovery site, west of the interchange of Interstates 10 and 215.

There is no evidence to suggest anything else moved the body that far, Shaw said.

Holiday disaster

The boy and his father, Ramon, 29, were among 14 people who died when a mud and debris flow swept through Camp St. Sophia in Waterman Canyon, below Highway 18 between San Bernardino and Crestline. Two other flood victims died at a KOA campground in Devore.

A stream that ran through the camp became a torrential, violent river carrying giant logs and boulders that smashed through a building used by the camp's caretaker. The caretaker had invited the Meza family and other friends for the holiday gathering.

The boy's father was found dead a few days after the flood. But repeated searches failed to turn up any sign of young Edgar.

On Jan. 9, Dunia Meza organized a group of family and friends to press the Sheriff's Department to renew its search for her son. They also performed their own search of a still-muddy debris basin near 40th Street and Harrison Street. The official search had been suspended a week earlier and it was briefly resumed.

At that time, Dunia Meza vowed to delay the burial of her husband until their son was found, so that they could be buried together.

But she soon relented because Ramon's family needed to return to their homes in Mexico. Her husband was buried Jan. 17.

Edgar will be buried in the same grave with his father at Mountain View Cemetery, Mrs. Meza said.

For at least some of the searchers, the discovery provided a measure of closure.

"At the point we knew that we were searching for bodies (rather than live victims), we had a good idea who they were," recalled Jack Nelson, a 24-year member of the San Bernardino Mountains Search and Rescue Team.

"It's always hard when kids are involved. It was pretty somber."

Nelson, too, was surprised by the distance the boy was carried by the flooding. Other victims of the disaster were found in creeks closer to St. Sophia campground.

"But water is pretty doggone powerful," Nelson said. "It's similar to an avalanche. The body would flow until it catches on something."

Independent, quiet, funny

"My brother was a good kid; although he was quiet, he was a funny kid," who loved soccer and was often, "independent of his family," wrote Edgar's brother Ramon Jr. in a memorial message in February.

Edgar often spent time by himself, Ramon Jr. said.

"If everybody was talking and laughing and joking around, he would be in a corner and be playing with his little toys," he wrote.

Since the death of her husband Ramon and son Edgar, Dunia Meza has cared for her two boys through the financial help and emotional support of fellow church members, she said.

They surrounded her Tuesday in the spotless mobile home her family occupies in San Bernardino.

"I've learned much since then," she said. "Our lives are in the hands of God, and our children are only loaned to us."