Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A multi-agency search continued today for a man who fell into the Rio Grande from his fishing boat and has been missing since Saturday.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the 830 Times today, “On Saturday about 6:30 p.m., we responded to a 9-1-1 call that some individuals needed help on the river below Amistad Dam at one of the weirs. There were two individuals found there who were rescued.”
“We have also been on a search to recover a third individual,” Martinez added.
Martinez said the two persons rescued were a Del Rio man and his seven-year-old daughter. He said the missing man is from Lufkin, Texas.
“The Border Patrol’s BORTAC team, our criminal investigations and patrol divisions and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens have all joined in the search for this individual,” the sheriff said.
Martinez said the two men and the girl were fishing from a 22-foot-long flat-bottomed boat upstream of the weir dam, which is located about two miles downstream of the Amistad Dam when their boat capsized near the weir.
“They had some kind of trouble, and the boat capsized. The father and daughter made it to land on the U.S. side of the river. We had some trouble getting to the location because all that area is under lock and key, but we got there, about 7:30 p.m.,” Martinez said.
VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division, said the father and daughter were taken to the emergency room at Val Verde Regional Medical Center, then taken by helicopter to a San Antonio hospital.
Garcia said the two were treated for non-life threatening injuries and hospitalized for observation. She said both are doing well.
Martinez said sheriff’s office investigators who spoke to the rescued man by phone learned that the missing man was last seen trying to climb on top of the capsized boat. The boat has been recovered.
“The DPS and Border Patrol helicopters were out Saturday evening and again Sunday morning,” Martinez said.
Garcia added on Sunday, Border Patrol agents searched the river using one of their boats.
“We also had investigators, Border Patrol agents and game wardens on the ground, searching,” Garcia said.
“As of today, the search is continuing, with the help of Border Patrol,” she added.
Garcia also said searchers are using a sonar device to assist in the search for the missing fisherman.
“This remains an ongoing investigation,” Martinez said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
