Who is Isiah Crawford? 7-year-old's body found 4 days after NC family tubing tragedy
EDEN, NORTH CAROLINA: The body of a seven-year-old has been found in a North Carolina river, almost four days after a deadly accident. On Wednesday, June 16, a fun-filled day of tubing turned into a tragedy for a North Carolina family when nine individuals including several children plunged into the Duke Energy dam, located in Eden.
The bodies of three drowned people in the party were located on Thursday, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said, about 19 hours after the group embarked on the tubing trip the day before. Four people were rescued, as they were clinging on to various items.
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As per the Washington Post, the ordeal began on Wednesday evening when several of the family’s tubes became untethered from one another on the Dan River in Eden. Some floated over the Duke Energy dam about 7 pm, according to the sheriff’s office. Emergency officials said they were not alerted to the incident until about 3.15 pm the next day when they received a 911 call from a Duke Energy employee.
Who is Isiah Crawford?
The seven-year-old’s body was recovered after a member of the public reported seeing it near a boat landing in Eden on Sunday morning, June 20. This was around 10 am, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office. The Post reported that authorities on Saturday, June 19, stopped the search for Isiah and Teresa Villano, 35, who had not been found as of Sunday evening. In fact, after Isiah’s body was found, recovery crew looked for Villano in the area but did not find her.
Isiah’s mother Bridish Crawford, 27, was found dead on June 17. Others who were discovered dead included Antonio Ramon, 30, and Sophia Wilson, 14 — who was visiting from Indiana. Ruben Villano, 35, his son Eric Villano, 14, his daughter Irene Villano, 18, and his nephew Karlos Villano, 14, also visiting from Indiana, were reportedly rescued by construction workers after spending 19 hours in the water. They were taken to hospital with injuries that are reportedly not thought to be life-threatening.
Rockingham County Emergency Services Director Rodney Cates had earlier said that it is not uncommon for recreation seekers to float on the river near the eight-foot dam. He added, however, that most people get off their tubes or rafts and walk around the dam, which is marked by signs. Cates also stressed the importance of wearing a safety vest when tubing: “Know where you are, know your surroundings, have your safety vest, your life vest, the inner tube may not always stay inflated, and if the inner tube is not inflated, you need some type of flotation device to secure you as you are coming on down the river.”
Megan Heitz, the mother of Sophia Wilson, reportedly shared a statement on social media. She said, “As many may have heard, yes my daughter Sophia Wilson passed away in a tragic tubing accident visiting family in North Carolina. Words can’t explain what we feel right now, she was my best friend, a sweetheart, and had so much life to live she was the most amazing daughter in so many ways, my life will never ever be the same a piece of me died.”
Debi Villano, the mother of Teresa and Ruben, told The Post that her daughter was pregnant at the time of the accident. She said that Teresa and her partner Antonio were together for 13 years, have three children, and moved to Eden to “start over and make their life over.” She said, “Everything was going great until this. It’s just all a big tragedy.”