SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Three Utahns died after being caught in a whirlpool during a canyoneering trip in the Sierra Nevada mountain range on Friday, according to the Tulare County Fire Dept.
Fire officials responded to a possible drowning at Seven Teacups, a hiking area in Tulare County, Calif., just before 5:20 p.m. on Friday. Upon arrival on scene, fire personnel found three people deceased.
The three victims have been identified as David Bell, Jeannine Skinner and Peter On.
According to David Bell’s sister — Cyndi Bell — the three were rappelling in the area, and on their last rappel, they went down into a pool of water. Jeannine went first, according to Cyndi, and got caught in a whirlpool.
Just after, Peter jumped in to save her and became caught as well. David then jumped in to save them both, but all three drowned as a result.
“They were able to get their bodies out in about seven minutes and they did CPR on them immediately and kept doing CPR for about 20 minutes but they were not able to revive any of them,” Cyndi wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. “The bodies will go to the coroner and then I’m not sure how we get the bodies back to UTAH.”
A GoFundMe has been created in David’s memory. An obituary for Peter has been posted here. A Facebook group has been created in memory of all three victims here.
An event called “Dancing Through Life” is being hosted at the Classic Fun Center in Sandy on Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 10 p.m. as a tribute to the lives of Bell, On, and Skinner. The venue is located at 9151 S 255 W, Sandy, Utah.