Two rescuers died while trying to save another man who, on May 28, 2020, had entered the North Fork Cosumnes River near a waterfall and submerged into an underwater chamber. Tim Nguyen, 20, was hiking with friends near Somerset, California, when he entered the river and submerged among the boulders at the falls. Evan Patrick Ishima, 24, of Florin, California, was hiking in another party when he saw Nguyen submerge. Kneeling at a boulder near the entrance to the chamber, Ishima extended his hand down into it, then lowered his lower body into the chamber while bracing his arms on two boulders. His friend held to him, while others at the scene formed a human chain, but Ishima was pulled down into the chamber and submerged. Gabriel Cedrik Saechao, a 20-year-old college student of Sacramento, California, who was in Nguyen’s party, then ran to the scene. Saechao entered the river near the chamber and was also drawn into it. He submerged and did not resurface. Nguyen’s body was found a week later when it emerged from the chamber near the base of the falls. Family and friends recovered Ishima’s body 13 days later, and Saechao’s, the next day. Nguyen, Ishima, and Saechao drowned.
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