Three Bodies Recovered

AUTHORITIES CONTINUE SEARCH FOR MISSING WOMAN UNTIL FOUND

By Caleb Fort

Posted: May 26, 2011 at 5:15 a.m.

Justin Wedgworth
Family and friends of flood victims react Wednesday after emergency workers tow a vehicle with victims’ bodies from Butler Creek near Siloam Springs.

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NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Authorities pulled a vehicle with the bodies of a woman, an infant and a child from Butler Creek on Wednesday.

One woman remains missing.

“I’m very hurt that it happened how it did, but at least there’s some closure on it,” said Casey Jenks, the brother-in-law of Alejandra Rodriguez-Jenks, whose body was found.

“There’s still one girl missing, and we’ll be out there until she’s found,” he said.

Rodriguez-Jenks and the children had been missing since Monday night, when she called her husband and said water was coming into the car, according to Capt. Mike Jones of the Benton County Sheriff ’s Oft ce.

He declined to give the names of the children. The children found in the car were Loudia Lopez’s, Jones said.

Lopez is still missing, but Jones said she is presumed dead. He said the search for her body will resume when the Illinois River recedes.

Authorities have not released the women’s ages. Jenks said both were in their 20s.

Authorities and volunteers searched Monday and Tuesday, scouring the Illinois River and its tributaries for signs of the red 2002 Ford Focus.

The women and children lived near Robinson Hollow Road and Shinn Springs Road, just east of Siloam Springs off U.S. 412.

Jones said they were on their way home from Fayetteville on Monday night when their car was apparently swept away somewhere around Readings Road, about a mile north of where the car was found.

Jenks said he and a cousin found the car Tuesday by the smell of gasoline coming from the water.

He and other family members and friends gathered Wednesday in the backyard of a house near the creek while the dive team retrieved the car.

Around 3:30 p.m., they gathered around Jones and Sheriff Keith Ferguson, who explained what they had found. Several of them cried.

Jones and Ferguson took Cody Jenks, Rodriguez-Jenks’ husband, toward the creek, where Jones said he identified his wife’s body.

The father of one of the children was also taken to identify the child’s body.

The father of the other child was not available to make an identifi cation, Jones said.

The car was under about 10 feet of water in a shaded length of Butler Creek, just south of U.S. 412 and 10 to 15 yards from the rushing Illinois River.

The bank of the creek was muddy and slick, covered in the footprints of rescue workers preparing to retrieve the car.

Family members and the media were not allowed to watch the car being pulled out.

The area past the tree line was covered in long grass that became more trampled throughout the day by emergency workers, vehicles and members of the media.

When the vehicle was towed past the tree line, it had a smashed windshield and dented body panels. A rearview mirror dangled from its mount. The right rear window was rolled down.

Casey Jenks described Rodriguez-Jenks as a devoted mother to her three children and one stepchild.

“A very great woman,” he said. “She loved her kids. Her kids were her world.”

Jones said the bodies are in the custody of the Benton County coroner Wednesday. The coroner will be responsible for determining a cause of death.

Jones said the Sheriff ’s Office will turn the investigation over to its Criminal Investigation Division because of the deaths.

Comments

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I'll never understand why people each year are killed by driving through rushing water. Being delayed is no reason to risk your list and certainly not that of children.

Posted by: AutopilotAR

May 26, 2011 at 9:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )