Woman’s body recovered from San Joaquin River after nearly two hours underwater

A woman died Sunday at a popular cooling-off spot along the San Joaquin River.

Rescuers rushed to Skaggs Bridge Park, near Kerman, about 4:30 p.m. when a 911 call to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center reported that somebody had gone underwater and failed to come up.

Madera and Fresno county sheriff’s deputies and an American Ambulance rescue team responded to the scene.

“Upon arrival, American Ambulance Swift Water Rescue got in the water and started searching for the victim,” Fresno County sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Stricker said. “At about 5:45, the victim was located.

“She was recovered, brought out of the water, but unfortunately, she was beyond help, and she was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Stricker said the woman was described as 40 years old. Her identity was not released.

“Large bodies of water, especially moving water, is incredibly dangerous, especially when you go swimming at a river or lake,” Stricker said. “You don’t know what’s under the surface of the water, especially right now the water is kind of low. But there are still sections of the river that get deep, and a lot of times, people don’t know how to swim.

“They’ll come out to the river, and they’ll play around in the shallows, which is fine, but then they start going out a little farther, and it gets deeper, and they sink right in, they fall in the water, and they don’t know how to swim, they start having problems, and then stuff like this can happen.”

The section of the river where the victim was found, Stricker said, was about 12 to 14 feet deep. Maybe 10 yards upstream, it was considerably more shallow.

One of the divers who searched for the victim required medical assistance at the scene upon exiting the river.

“He was out there for quite a while,” Stricker said. “Even though it’s hot out and you think going in the water is cool, the water temperature is probably about 85 degrees. You can still sweat in water. If anybody has ever played water polo, and the temperature of the pool is warm, you’ll sweat and get dehydrated real quickly.

“He was out there for quite a while and got a little dehydrated with the heat and not being able to cool off. He got some fluids and is doing well now.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2022 at 7:38 PM.