Family grieves loss of mother who tried saving daughter from drowning in San Joaquin River
NEWMAN – A family is without a mother this Mother's Day weekend. The three-day-long search for Brenda Duran's body ended Saturday in Newman in the San Joaquin River.
"She just looked at me with a scared look, went under and never came back up," said family member Felicia Guzman.
A family grieving the loss of Brenda, a mother trying to save her daughter from drowning and an older brother trying his best to help.
"I realized she was fainted, I jumped into the river, I swam to the middle, I grabbed her and I came out by the time I saw that I looked for my mom to save her and she was already under the water," said son and older brother Jaime Aguilar Guzman.
Both children made it safely out of the water.
The search for Brenda lasted two days before the family contacted a private diver to aid in the search.
"I asked him how much are you guna charge he said I'm not guna charge you anything," said family member Aurora Duran.
"We found her in six hours. A little under six hours," said scuba instructor Juan Heredia, who located the body.
The family said the waters were filled with all sorts of water rescue resources including boats, sonar and drones. But they say ultimately it just comes down to training.
"Maybe something they do every so often, brush up. One thing is to have the toys the other is to know how to use them," said family member Jorge Guzman Duran.
The private divers who volunteered to help also recovered a high school student who went missing in the Calaveras River last month.
"I have experience and I can read the water," said Heredia.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office said the particular area she was found hadn't been searched yet due to order of protocol.
"No, it's not a training issue. It just happened to be the divers were told hey this grid hasn't been searched you guys can help search this grid and that's where she happened to be at, so it has nothing to do with training and for lack of a better word has a lot to do with luck. Where is it that she's going to be and they happened to get the grid where she was at," said Sgt. Veronica Esquivez with the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office.
The family says Brenda was a strong swimmer and wants to highlight the dangers of underwater currents.
"She was always a hard-working mother. She basically gave everything for her kids, even her life," said Jorge.
The sheriff's department reminds people to wear life jackets and to remember how fast and cold the water can be as the snowpack from winter melts.
The volunteer divers say their payment is being able to return a loved one to their family.