When we find the body and bring him back to shore, it's like they died all over again.
They know in their minds, in their hearts that, you know, he's gone but
they can't accept it until they have the body.
First drowning victim I recovered was in 1983 in the Boise River.
The family sent us a really nice thank-you
and it was just something that we felt that we had the equipment and ability to
search for people, that it's really something that we should do.
We are retired from environmental consulting specializing in water-related
environmental issues. We've found now 121 people.
Everybody said that Gene Ralston was the guy to go to and his wife Sandy. He said
he needed to survey, what was going on, and the channel there, and where we
think he went down, and he said if he thinks he can help, he'll come out, and he
called me that next morning and said he was coming.
We had an image of him in the first 18 minutes I think it was.
He was in I believe 70-75 feet of water.
You could actually see the outline of a body.
I could tell from the image that it appeared he was face down.
We use side-scan sonar which uses sound to create images of things in the water.
Any object that has some height to it laying on the bottom will create a
shadow. Software converts it into a plan view, like an aerial view, like we're
looking straight down on it. Most of the agencies have side view sonar but it's
not quite the same thing in that the transducer is mounted on the hull.
We've found people after as much as 29 years. All we ask for is to recover our expenses.
We don't charge a daily fee. A lot of the families that we've helped
stay in contact with us, many become extended family, and it's heartwarming, it
really means something to us.
It's always bittersweet to meet Gene and Sandy out here.
He's like family to - the connection, like a family - to all these people. He ...
He did a dive off of the top deck of the pontoon boat. He ended up falling from the top deck
and hitting his head really hard on the railing. He fell into the water after that.
He didn't come back up.
When they came out in September, it was a
remarkable thing to actually go back to the place of the accident but to be
participating in that recovery effort. There was a really therapeutic activity.
They put their heart and soul into doing this for families, and when you are the
family in need of their help you can feel that.
It's bittersweet, you know,
I'm so glad that we got to bring him home but it also brings a sense of realism
and it brings a sense of, you know, just it just hits you heavier.
The day that this incident happened, happened to be my birthday. April 16.
75 years old.
My body is telling me that, yes, we need to slow down, we need to think about not putting
yourself through all of this, the mental stress and physical stress, but my heart
and mind says you can't say no.
I really don't like the word closure.
It's terribly overused because things are never closed.
The pain goes on forever. There's no forgetting, it's always there.