4 victims in mass drowning on Ohio river identified as 2 married couples

Four of the five victims in a mass drowning in an Ohio river that orphaned two young children have been identified as married couples from Honduras, officials in Honduras confirmed to News.

Two women and three men died after entering a river in Ohio on Sunday, after one of the adults is believed to have started struggling in the water, as the two children were left on shore, authorities said.

The Honduran president’s office and the Honduran foreign ministry identified four of the victims as married couple Miguel Ángel Guerra and Carmen Idalia Lara Ferrera, both 33, and married couple José Mario Pineda, 33, and Marina Suyapa Regalado Miranda, 29.

The foreign ministry said its office is cooperating with U.S. authorities to repatriate the bodies to Honduras and is also supporting the two children. 

The name of the fifth person who died has not been released.

The group is believed to have been fishing Sunday evening at the Scioto River in Powell, north of Columbus, when at some point one of the adults went in to go swimming, according to Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer.

When the person started to struggle in the water, two others went in to try to save them, but then they also started to struggle, Balzer said. Two others then went into the water to help, he said, calling the incident a “tragedy.”

One of the deceased is believed to be the person who was initially struggling in the river, according to a sheriff’s office spokesperson.

Two 911 callers reported seeing a child in a towel running along a state highway near the Scioto River, according to audio of the calls obtained by News.

“There was a little baby. I think it was like a boy. … He was like screaming, like crying — like, ‘Mama, mama!'” one of the people said.

A third person who called 911 said, “We’re right here on the riverbank, and we think we see a floating body.”

First responders pulled two women from the river Sunday night, Balzer said. They were transported to area hospitals, where they were pronounced dead, he said.

The bodies of three men were recovered from the river on Monday, the sheriff’s office said.

Two children under the age of 10 who were with the group have been placed in the care of family services, according to Balzer.