A river swept a 4-year-girl and her 2-year-old brother to their deaths at a mountainside California beauty spot, police said Tuesday.
Their bodies were found Tuesday afternoon near a tributary of the Santa Ana River after their mother had frantically searched for them.
Neither the children nor their mother have been publicly identified.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Yucaipa Police Department said in a joint statement that the family went to spend the afternoon at the Thurman Flats Picnic Area, east of San Bernardino.
The tranquil spot in San Bernardino National Forest, just off Highway 38, near Mentone, is popular for bird-watching. The Mill Creek mountain stream runs nearby.
Police said the children were playing “near the river with rapid water moving downstream.” At 3:01 p.m. local time (12:01 p.m. ET) the woman was “attending to her son while her daughter was taken downstream,” police said.
The woman searched but could not find her daughter.
“When she returned, her son was missing and assumed to be down river as well. After frantically searching, she hiked up to the picnic area and contacted another family to help search for the children but were unsuccessful in locating them,” the police statement said.
At 4:03 p.m. a search party including deputies from Yucaipa Station, Sheriff’s Air Rescue, Mentone Station County Fire and the U.S. Forest Service Rescue Crew began looking for the missing children.
Thirty minutes later the girl was found, and the boy was found shortly afterward — both were near the river’s edge. Their bodies were found 1.5 miles from the picnic area.
The children "were transported to local hospitals, and after extensive life saving measures, they were pronounced deceased,” police said.
NBC Los Angeles reported that the woman had told her children not to go near the water and that she was injured during the search. The station also published video showing rescuers moving across fast-moving waters.
The San Bernardino County Fire Protection District warned that the dangers of such waterways had increased as mountain snow melts in warmer weather.
“We’re starting to enter into our warmer days, which attracts people out to our creeks, rivers and waterfalls. But this also coincides with the spring melt when our water flow is typically at one of the higher rates that we see,” said Eric Sherwin, a public information officer for the fire service.
Authorities have yet to say whether anyone involved in the incident will face criminal charges. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has urged anyone with information relating to its investigation to visit wetip.com.
