Man, teenager drown in Wissahickon Creek

The boy who ran up the banks of the Wissahickon Creek to the restaurant overlooking the water was nearly hysterical, an employee there said.

But he managed to get out a few words: His father and brother had gone underwater, he said, and hadn't come back up.

An hour later, a 13-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were pulled by rescue crews from the water.

Both were unresponsive.

The man was pronounced dead by on-site medics at 3:45 p.m.; the boy was pronounced dead five minutes later, police said.

Witnesses told police the boy jumped into the part of the creek known as Devil's Pool about 2:45 p.m., near Valley Green Road and Forbidden Drive, police said.

The boy's father, according to witnesses, then jumped in after him. Neither resurfaced.

Police Marine Unit divers set up a staging area near the Valley Green Inn and searched the water for about an hour. An employee at the inn said it appeared the father and son had been on a family outing.

Children swim in the creek often, said Tyree Johnson, a valet parking attendant at the Valley Green Inn. Fairmount Park rangers generally try to dissuade them - it's against park rules, Johnson said.

By 5:30 p.m. Friday, the creek was tranquil. Johnson and other inn employees bustled around the restaurant - which sits on a trail running through the park - as guests for a wedding party arrived, teetering in high heels down the gravel path. The creek itself was still.

Friday's deaths were the latest in a string of drownings in local creeks this summer.

On Aug. 13, Sebastien Sanon, 15, fell into the Pennypack Creek near Frankford Avenue and Ashburner Street, after a heavy storm, and drowned. His body was found days later after an extensive search.

A month before that, Brandon Boyle, 13, drowned in the rain-swollen Pennypack Creek near Roosevelt Boulevard and Winchester Avenue.

In late July, two 18-year-old Bensalem men drowned in Bucks County's Neshaminy Creek.