(Guadalupe County) — The body of an 18-year old man has been recovered from the Guadalupe River.
Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Deputies say the San Marcos Dive Team found the body of Adrian Mares around 10:30 Thursday morning. Mares on Wednesday was swimming in the river downstream of the FM 1117 bridge. He went missing around 8:30 p.m. and rescue teams were called in late that night to conduct a search. The search was called off shortly before midnight and resumed at daylight the next day. That is when the dive team came in, and they were able to locate Mares’ body.
Lt. Clint Garza, of the sheriff’s office, says his body was found not very far from where he was last seen by a group of people swimming just south of the bridge. Mares was reportedly one of two individuals who got swept away. The other man was able to be pulled out in time.
Garza says this area of the river can be very dangerous.
“The dams that are up the Guadalupe River from Lake McQueeney, Lake Placid, Meadow Lake – all of those control the water that flows here. This is kind of the last exit for all that that comes out of those dams and the levels can fluctuate. Just while we where here this morning, the water was real nice and calm early in the morning and then when it discharges and the dams are moving the water, it started to come up, came up 18 inches in the time that we were down there doing the recovery,” said Garza. “The current plus all the flood debris that builds up with years. We got brush underwater that you can’t see. There’s a lot of whirlpools. There’s a pretty good 90 degree bend in the river and it causes a lot of currents, a lot of undertows and so it just makes it really, really dangerous once you get into the deep water.”
Now that things are warming up, authorities are asking the public to be careful when trying to cool off in the river.
Authorities are asking that the public keep the young man’s family and friends in their thoughts and prayers.
It was a sad end to Thursday’s rescue effort, but the Seguin Fire/EMS Department had a successful rescue of its own on Wednesday. Fire Chief Dale Skinner says that a family’s dog fell into the Guadalupe River on the east side of Max Starcke Park. A man jumped in to save the dog, but he and the dog could not get back onto the bank. The fire department launched its boat and used it to retrieve the man and his girlfriend’s dog. Both are said to be fine.