Chilling police audio captured rescuers’ frantic heart-wrenching search for five people, including two sets of parents, who died in a mass drowning in an Ohio river – leaving two young children orphans.
“They had a 5-year-old walking out on along the road. … There’s someone in the water there,” a Delaware County dispatcher can be heard saying on the radio around 9:25 p.m. Sunday.
Moments earlier, a passing motorist had called 911 after spotting the frantic little boy begging for help on a busy street near the Scioto River in the Columbus suburb of Powell.
The terrified child told the driver that his “family was in the river,” Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said at a news conference Monday.
What began as a carefree summer evening of fishing from the shoreline turned tragic when one adult in the group went in the water to swim and began struggling, prompting two other adults to jump in to try to save the person, Balzer said.
When those two adults also began struggling, another two adults rushed into the river in a desperate rescue attempt, the sheriff explained.
None of the five made it back to shore.
Responding deputies quickly found the two children at the scene – and soon realized the horrifying scale of the tragedy, according to the dispatch audio obtained by The Post.
“The bodies are in there. There are two young juveniles [on shore]– a young male and a young female. They don’t have any parents,” an officer said over the radio.
Another responder devastatingly added: “We have some clothes and some shoes out in the water.”
A “language barrier” between cops and the children – both under 10 years old – initially made it difficult to determine how many people needed rescuing, according to the dispatch audio and Balzer.
“Chief, it sounds like we had eight people in the water – we got five out; three confirmed missing,” an officer said over the radio. “We are going to need a boat, we got some lighting coming down here. We’ll need some additional rescuers and suits.”
Minutes later, rescuers requested a Spanish-speaker be sent to the scene to communicate further with the children.
“We got two victims in the raft at this time, we’re trying to resuscitate,” a rescuer said.
“We got two bodies total coming out right now. We’re not exactly sure how many are left in the water. We’re still looking for at least one,” he continued.
Those two initial victims – later identified as women – were rushed to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
As crews continued searching the waters into the night, responders found more clothing scattered in the water.
“Boat 91 has a fourth shoe that is different from any previous found,” a deputy can be heard saying over the radio at one point. “Fourth shoe doesn’t match the others.”
The effort eventually transitioned from a rescue mission to a recovery operation late Sunday.
The bodies of the three remaining victims — all men — were recovered from the river Monday afternoon, when officials confirmed that two sets of parents were among the five killed.
The two surviving children – at least one of whom does not speak fluent English – were placed in the care of family services, Balzer said at the Monday news conference.
When asked how the kids were coping, the sheriff responded: “I think they’re OK, but they always say that, right?
“The great thing is, in Delaware County … we have protocols in place to take care of these folks, whether it’s peer support teams or different programs to be able to counsel them afterwards, too,” he said.
No boat was at the scene. It was unclear if alcohol played a factor in the tragedy, the sheriff said.
The circumstances surrounding the drownings are still under investigation, and authorities are withholding the victims’ identities until all of their families have been notified.
The Scioto River was running unusually high and fast Sunday, flowing at a rate of 350 cubic feet per second – more than double the average rate, according to data from a nearby US Geological Survey gauge.
Balzer urged anyone entering the water to understand their swimming abilities and take proper safety precautions.
“Know your skill level before you get in the water. Are you a confident swimmer?” he said. “Make sure you have other people around in case something goes wrong to notify someone.”
