Final Body Found in North Carolina Tubing Accident

Teresa Villano, 35, was six months pregnant
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 7, 2021 3:00 AM CDT
Final Body Found in North Carolina Tubing Accident
In this June 18, 2021 file photo, rescue personnel stage along the Dan River in Eden, N.C.   (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

The bodies of all five victims of a tubing tragedy on North Carolina's Dan River have now been recovered. Teresa Villano, 35, was six months pregnant when she went on the family tubing trip June 16. Her body was recovered Monday afternoon, the Greensboro News & Record reports. Villano had just moved to the area this spring to be closer to family. Per WFMY News 2, the other victims are Isiah Crawford, 7, and his mother Bridish Crawford, 27 (the younger brother and stepmother to two of the teen survivors); Antonio Ramon, 30; and Sophie Wilson, 16. Four members of the group survived: Teresa Villano's twin brother Rueben Villano, 35, and his children Eric Villano, 14, and Irene Villano, 18; and the teens' cousin Karlos Villano, 14.

The survivors were in the water nearly an entire day before a Duke Energy worker saw them "clinging to the dam" on June 17, NBC News reports. The first four bodies were recovered within days of the accident. Villano's sister said earlier this month that the group didn't realize what the 8-foot-high dam was until they went over it; they thought the ripples from the dam were just small rapids. One of the survivors told ABC News last month, "We thought it was just a bump in the river, you know we’d go down," and by the time they realized what was happening, it was too late. Dams are notorious for trapping people underwater due to strong currents churning at the bottom. (More North Carolina stories.)

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