Current:Home > FinanceRobert Brown|3 hunters found dead in underground reservoir in Texas were trying to rescue dog, each other -GrowthSphere Strategies
Robert Brown|3 hunters found dead in underground reservoir in Texas were trying to rescue dog, each other
Benjamin Ashford View
Date:2025-04-08 16:30:17
BASTROP,Robert Brown Texas− Three people from Florida fell into an underground water reservoir in Central Texas and died on Wednesday after trying to catch a dog that had fallen into the hole.
Authorities said the group was going to meet a friend to go hog hunting in Bastrop County, just outside of Austin. A dog escaped from their truck and fell in the reservoir, prompting three of the people to go after the dog.
"It's a sad day whenever it ends like it did yesterday," Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook said during a news briefing Thursday. "Can you imagine? You have loved ones and they come to Texas to hunt and then it ends like this, which was a sad tragedy that just happened."
The hole in the ground was a cistern, which is an underground water reservoir common in rural areas that is used to supply water to homes. The cistern's opening was ground level and left open, but typically those holes should be covered, Cook said.
He said the cistern was essentially a "hole in the middle of a cornfield."
Body buried behind concrete wall ID'd:Police ID slain Australian woman whose bones were found in concrete wall
Hydrogen sulfide fumes found in cistern
Authorities smelled fumes coming from the hole and found high levels of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas common in septic tanks and wells. Cook said they speculate the gas affected the buoyancy of the water and caused them to not be able to float.
"It wasn't long in the tank before they went to the bottom," he said.
Officials said two men and a woman were recovered from the hole: Delvys Garcia, 37; Denise Martinez, 26; and Noel Vigil-Benitez, 45.
5 dead in PA RV interstate crash:Five people, dog killed after motorhome RV and semi collide on Pennsylvania interstate
A hog hunt among friends
Cook said his office received a call at 1:02 a.m. that three people had fallen into a hole near County Road 461 in Elgin. Cook said the call came from the fourth person in the group, a friend who lives in the area and invited the other three to hunt hogs. He did not release the name of that person.
From the initial investigation, Cook said, it appears that the group was about to start hunting when one of the dogs escaped from the truck. This prompted the group to start searching for the dog, when they found that the dog fell into this hole. One of the hunters jumped into the cistern to try to rescue it.
Cook said there was about a 6- to 8-foot gap between the water's surface and the cistern's opening.
Diving teams were hesitant to get in the water due to the gas, and after contacting six different diving teams, all of whom declined to get in, they decided to pump out the water and ventilate out the gas. They then flew a drone into the hole to check the integrity of the walls.
Once this was done, Cook said a deputy went into the hole three separate times, starting at about 6:30 p.m., and took out the three bodies and the dog. All of the bodies were sent to the Travis County medical examiner's office. The rescue efforts ended at about 7:30 p.m.
Cook said the cistern was on private property and preliminary information indicates that the property owner recently died. Authorities did not release the name of the property owner.
Cook said each of the friends went in to rescue one another. He said it appears one man jumped in immediately, and the other man and the woman took off their shoes and other pieces of clothing before jumping into the water.
"That group was there to save each other," he said. "That takes a lot of guts to jump in."
veryGood! (85451)
Related
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Darren Walker’s Ford Foundation legacy reached far beyond its walls
- Man pleads guilty to bribing a Minnesota juror with a bag of cash in COVID-19-related fraud case
- Starbucks offering half-price drinks for a limited time Tuesday: How to redeem offer
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- Knights of Columbus covers shrine’s mosaics by ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women
- How employers are taking steps to safeguard workers from extreme heat
- New York’s Marshes Plagued by Sewage Runoff and Lack of Sediment
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- George Clooney backs Kamala Harris for president
Ranking
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- Team USA Women's Basketball Showcase: Highlights from big US win over Germany
- Haason Reddick continues to no-show Jets with training camp holdout, per reports
- Knights of Columbus covers shrine’s mosaics by ex-Jesuit artist accused of abusing women
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- Haason Reddick continues to no-show Jets with training camp holdout, per reports
- Lawyer for man charged with killing 4 University of Idaho students wants trial moved to Boise
- Stock market today: Asian stocks fall after a torrent of profit reports leaves Wall Street mixed
Recommendation
Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
Can you guess Olympians’ warmup songs? World’s top athletes share their favorite tunes
New York City’s Marshes, Resplendent and Threatened
Montana Supreme Court allows signatures of inactive voters to count on ballot petitions
Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
Amari Cooper, Cleveland Browns avoid camp holdout with restructured deal
SBC fired policy exec after he praised Biden's decision, then quickly backtracked
Federal court won’t block New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period on gun purchases amid litigation