Quite the journey.

Red arrow is where the accident happened. Green arrow is where they found the body.

Body of 2-year-old found in river

'DENVER - The body of a missing 2-year-old boy swept away with his mother Monday by a flash flood was recovered in the South Platte River midday Wednesday.

Jose Matthew Jauregui III went missing during Monday night's heavy rain while with his mother in Lakewood Gulch, near the South Platte River.

9NEWS has learned that crews located a body near Franklin Street and Race Court shortly before 1 p.m.

They responded to the area after receiving reports from construction workers who said they saw a body floating in the river.

Denver Fire Chief Larry Trujillo confirms that it is the body of Jose and says it is a blessing that the body was found.

"I think we're blessed we found this child in this amount of time. As far as we knew it's been in our prayers for everybody, this child could've ended up all the way in Weld County," said Trujillo.

Jose's family arrived at the scene, including the boy's mother, Elsha Guel.

Jose's great aunt, Julie Guzman, says the family had gone to the river roughly and hour-and-a-half before the body was found and prayed.

"We prayed by the creek earlier today that he would be found and that Jesus would bring him home to us today and he did," she said. "When he was gone, I sort of lost a little bit of faith. I don't understand how this could happen."

"It's a sad day and a happy day. It's a sad day because we found him dead; it's a happy day that we found him," said Guzman.

She also asked that the family be given time to grieve the loss of Jose.

Fire rescue crews had been searching for the boy for the past two days without success. Wednesday morning crews focused on the banks of the river.

"The captain that was here was the captain that worked the other day said it really helped him bring some closure like all of us," said Trujillo after the boy was found Wednesday.

"The other day the aunt asked me, 'Promise me you'll find him.' I said, 'I don't make promises like that, I promise we'll keep trying,'" said Trujillo. "The odds of this I would definitely say are more than one in a million of being able to find this child. I think it's the prayers that brought him back."

Crews say they had switched to recovery mode Monday night after Jose went missing.

Guel was trapped by a tall concrete wall along the path and firefighters say there was not any way for her to get back up to the street level and away from the water. Firefighters say the water rushed in, in a matter of seconds, knocking her over and the stroller out of her hand.

"I can't imagine the horror of the woman seeing the child drift away perhaps forever," said Lt. Phil Champagne with the Denver Fire Department.

The water was so swift that elite divers with the fire department were almost swept away trying to get to her.

They say the Guel was clinging to a concrete section of a bridge when they finally got to her.

"The only question on her mind was had we rescued her child. When we told her we hadn't and we attempted to rescue her she looked at the rescuer, let go of the concrete barrier and said she no longer wanted to live without her child," said Champagne.

Rescuers pulled her out a few hundred yards away. She was taken to the hospital where she was treated and released.

After searching miles of waterway on Monday, crews had only found an empty stroller.

Lakewood Gulch is known as a hazard to flood and drainage engineers.

"That stretch there is no way out," said Bill DeGroot with the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District.

He says there are design plans to remedy the problem but there is no timeline yet for it to be implemented.

"The plan is to make it a lot wider, it would help with the flood depths and there would be a gradual slope of dirt and grass instead of a tall concrete wall along the path so that a person could easily walk out to safety," he said. '