It's a story that's become all too familiar along the Kern River. Another drowning has left a family grieving, with officials warning the river can turn deadly in seconds.
“My son is going to be so missed; I can’t believe it, I just saw him,” said Maria James, the victim's mother.
The death of Maria James’ son, 30-year-old Mariel Antonio Officer, came as a devastating shock, especially because she says she didn’t even know he was at the river.
Witnesses told 23ABC they saw a group of three people floating down the river in inflatable tubes before they began struggling against the current.
"We just noticed that they were struggling; they tried to swim to the outside, but one of them immediately like went under in front of us, and only his hand was coming up," witness Alan Castillo said.
The incident began around 5:15 Thursday evening. The Kern County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Unit launched an immediate search that continued overnight before ending Friday morning, when Officer's body was recovered.
Volunteers with Kern County Search and Rescue said recovering a victim so soon after an incident is uncommon, crediting drone technology with helping locate the man underwater.
"He was able to get the drone and locate the body. It was under the water; we probably wouldn't have seen it just from the boats, but because the drone was high up in the air, it was able to look down into the water and find it," volunteer Doug Ely said.
Officer's family said off camera they still don't understand why their loved one, known as "Tony," would get in the water knowing he was not a strong swimmer.
His 13-year-old brother, Jaylen, remembered him in his own words.
"He's like a friend and a brother because he is my brother, he's my older brother. " I'm really going to miss him; it's like a nightmare, I'm really going to miss him," Jaylen said.
James said she is frustrated to still see families entering the river after losing her firstborn son, warning that it only takes seconds for lives to change forever.
"Stay out of this river here," James said. "How many more deaths do we need, no one listens everyone is hard headed, they're non chalant it's not a joke, the river is dangerous."
As temperatures continue to reach into the triple digits, officials are reminding the public to stay out of the river and stay alive.
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