Cops: 2 drown in Wissahickon when father tries to rescue son, as 3 siblings watch
The bodies of a 41-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy were recovered near a popular swimming spot.
ALONG THE Wissahickon Creek, not far from Devil's Pool, a near-perfect summer afternoon ended in tragedy yesterday as three young children watched their father rush into the water to save their older brother, and neither came out alive.
The father, 41, tried to save his 13-year-old son, who was struggling in the water near the popular swimming hole just before 3 p.m. yesterday, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan said. "He was just a father who took his kids out to enjoy a beautiful day, and this happens," said Sullivan. "He did what any good father would do. He tried to save his son."
Crews discovered the bodies in the water about 4 p.m., but authorities had not released their identities as of last night. The man's three youngest children, ages 7, 9, and 12, ran to the Valley Green Inn, where a wedding party was setting up, to seek help. Employees dialed 9-1-1, Sullivan said. Just before 5 p.m., several young children were escorted out of Valley Green Inn and into police cruisers, along with a young man police were consoling along the creek on Forbidden Drive.
It's not legal to swim in city creeks, but people were jumping off the rocks into Devil's Pool just a few hours after the drownings.
"I can't imagine anyone drowning here," said Mike, 24, who had just climbed up the rocks yesterday, still wet from his jump. "It's a very light current."
Mike, who asked that his full name not be published, said he has been injured by rocks in the creek in the past.
Tyree Johnson, directing cars for the wedding at Valley Green, said people swim in the creek every day in the summer.
"The rangers do try to stop them, but it doesn't do no good," Johnson, 30, said on a bridge overlooking the creek. "It's just terrible. Thank God all of the kids didn't jump in."
Although the Wissahickon isn't particularly wide and doesn't appear to be fast-moving, Sullivan said it's a deceptive body of water, with many steep drop-offs to deeper water.
"It's a very common mistake to assume this is just a calm body of water," he said.
In July, the Daily News highlighted the perils of swimming in Philadelphia's seven creeks in recent years, reporting that 16 people had died in them before yesterday. Most recently, on July 1, 13-year-old Brendan Boyle drowned in the rain-swollen waters of Pennypack Creek.
Yesterday, crickets chattered in the brush and geese trumpeted down the waterway while Sullivan sat on a park bench on Forbidden Drive. A young man sat beside him, digging ruts in the gravel with his shoes and shaking his head, unable to fathom the finality he was hearing. Down at Valley Green Inn, about 50 yards away, an instrumental of "Can't Help Falling in Love" played in the background for the wedding.
Sullivan held his cap in one hand, talking softly to the young man, his other arm draped over his shoulder.
"Stop telling me they're dead," the young man shouted. "Stop telling me they're dead."