Body of Teresa Villano, last victim in June tubing accident in N.C., recovered from Dan River
The last victim in a tubing accident involving nine family members on the Dan River in North Carolina has been found, ending a 19-day search, authorities confirmed Monday.
The body of Teresa Villano, 35, was found at around 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. She was six months pregnant.
“Ms. Villano’s next of kin have been notified,” the sheriff’s office said.
Villano was the last person still missing after the group of family members went tubing down the Dan River in Eden, North Carolina, on June 16.
“Around nightfall, the nine individuals, whose tubes were all connected together, went over a dam located on the Dan River near the Duke Energy Power Plant in Eden,” the sheriff’s original statement said.
Four of the family members were rescued the next day after a Duke Energy employee spotted them in the river, and three more deceased were found soon afterward.
Crews rescued Rueben Villano, 35, and his children Irene, 18; and Eric, 14, along with his nephew Karlos Villano, 14, according to the sheriff’s office. All four were treated at a local hospital for their injuries.
The same day, rescuers found the bodies of Rueben Villano’s partner Bridish Crawford, 27; and Teresa’s partner Antonio Ramon, 30, along with Teresa’s niece, Sophie Wilson, 14. The body of Bridish Crawford’s son Isiah, 7, was found days later. Teresa was Rueben’s twin sister.
Villano was the last one still missing after authorities located the body of 7-year-old Isiah Crawford, Bridish Crawford’s son, on June 20.
The tubers had dropped over an 8-foot dam near the Duke Energy Steam Station and into the strong current churning the 3-foot-deep water at the base, a phenomenon dubbed by boating experts as a “drowning machine,” in which the hydraulic force at the base of a low-head dam can trap swimmers underwater in a reverse rolling cycle, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“They didn’t know what it was,” Villano’s sister Angelica Villano of La Porte, Indiana, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, adding that the rescued family members said they had thought the ripples in the water below the dam were small rapids.
Local river experts said the accident the worst they can remember, the Richmond Times-Dispatch said.
With News Wire Services
