Search and rescue crews on Monday recovered the bodies of two men who were swept away by the American River over the weekend, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said they received a call shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday reporting that two men had been carried off by the river about two hours earlier and had not resurfaced. The men, both 20 years old, were part of a group of three fishing near the Oregon Bar area when one of them entered the water.
As the current swept the first man away, the second man jumped in to try to help but was also overcome by the river’s strength, authorities said. It remains unclear how the first man ended up in the water.
Crews initially searched the area Saturday night using aircraft and a dive team from the shore. However, darkness and swift currents made it unsafe to conduct a raft search, the sheriff’s office said.
The search resumed Sunday with 18 rescue personnel, two K-9 teams, and two drones scanning both sides of the river. On Monday, a sheriff’s office drone operator spotted the bodies downstream from where the men were last seen, and dive team members retrieved them.
“The recovery operation was extremely technical and in a portion of the river with rapids and strong current,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “A complex pulley system of ropes was established, and our dive team carefully navigated to the middle of the river to recover the bodies of both men.”
Search and rescue teams employed a combination of resources throughout the effort, including K-9 units, drones, and CAL FIRE NEU support.
“The search efforts were comprised of searchers and K-9s along the shoreline, Falcon 30 and drones searching overhead, and the dive team searching from the water,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officials have not yet released the identities of the victims but expressed their sympathies to the families of the two men.
“We extend our condolences to the loved ones impacted by this tragedy,” the sheriff’s office said.