On Monday, 3 family members were last seen in the water of the Vermillion and Mississippi rivers. On Tuesday, their bodies were found.
The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office heard that a family had gathered on Diamond Island and that three people in the group who were swimming in the river were having trouble.
A man who was fishing with the group jumped in to save them. He pulled his grown-up daughter out of the river and then went back in to save two other family members, a man and a girl who was 17 years old. The three were never seen again. All are from Oakdale.
Around 6:50 a.m. on Wednesday, two bodies were found. The third was found at 7:05 a.m. All of them were in the search area.
The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office said that first responders were called to the mouth of the Vermillion, where it flows into the Mississippi, at about 7:35 p.m. on Monday.
The county’s water patrol and several other agencies rushed to the scene, but they had to stop the search quickly because it was raining and there was a chance of bad weather.
Sonar and other electrical tools were used by divers and boats on Tuesday morning to help with the search. Major Mike Johnson from the sheriff’s office told reporters on Tuesday that the three missing people were “inexperienced swimmers” who weren’t wearing life jackets. He said that they were swimming in water that was only 3 feet deep, but that there was a sharp drop off to the right that went to 9 feet deep.
Johnson said that the search was hard, in part because of the strong underwater currents caused by all the different bodies of water that meet near the search spot. Six departments, such as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and a nearby sheriff’s office in Wisconsin, are helping with the search.
“They’re searching a large area, there’s extreme heat. There’s been inclement weather that have just made the search very difficult,”Johnson said. “However all of the parties out there working – law enforcement and volunteers – keep working through and doing the best they can.”
The Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office will tell the public the names of the family members.
If someone is drowning, the Red Cross says, “Reach or throw, but don’t go.” Use your hand or something else to get to the person in trouble, or throw them a life jacket or something that floats. Putting yourself in danger by going into the water on your own.
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