The Tulare County coroner has confirmed the deaths of three friends and adventurers from Utah who drowned in a whirlpool undercurrent in the Sierra Nevada mountain range just before 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23.
David Bell, 42, of American Fork, Utah; Pete On, 46, of Utah; and Jeannine Skinner, 34, of Salt Lake City died Friday, spokeswoman Teresa Douglass of the coroner’s office told The Epoch Times.
The coroner hasn’t released their official causes of death, but according to friends and family, the three drowned in a mountain pool after rappelling down a cliff near Seven Teacups, a hiking area in Central California near Johnsondale, about 70 miles east of Bakersfield.
The adventurers were reportedly part of a larger group of about 13 that was canyoneering—a combination of hiking, rock climbing, swimming, and rappelling.
According to friends and relatives, Skinner was caught in a whirlpool after rappelling the final cliff of the day and became stuck in the water.
On was the first to react after seeing Skinner struggle, friends reported. He jumped in to try to pull her to safety but also got trapped in the undercurrent.
Bell jumped in to rescue both, but they were all pulled under and drowned, according to Bell’s friend Daniel Oster, who started fundraising for Bell’s family on GoFundMe. Donations reached nearly $14,000 by midday Tuesday.
Bell was the CEO and founder of Runtastic Events, a marathon and running group in Utah, and a founding member of Harrington Center for the Arts. He also served on several arts and music committees, according to the center.
“David is a hero,” the center posted Saturday on Facebook after learning of the loss.
Skinner was a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and health coach who was “helping people live healthier lives one goal at a time,” according to her LinkedIn page.
On described himself as an “adventurist” on his Facebook page.
No other information was released about the trio by authorities Tuesday.
Their bodies were pulled out of the whirlpool within about seven minutes but they could not be revived, Oster said. The Tulare County Sheriff flew the bodies out of the mountains by helicopter the next day, he said.
“The pain is indescribable as we face this loss,” he said.
The Tulare County Fire Department declined to release any information about the incident Tuesday.
Stories and photos of the three continued to emerge Tuesday as friends and family coped with their loss. Katherine Hall, a friend of Bell’s, described him as a “big hug” person.
“Not only because he would always give the best hugs, but just being around him would make you feel happier—like he was giving you a big hug,” she wrote in a memorial to him on Facebook.
If he wasn’t outdoor adventuring, he was dancing and laughing, she said.
Bell had also “fallen in love” with Skinner and wanted to marry her, Hall said.
“How bittersweet that they passed on together,” she wrote. “Hundreds of my friends are heartbroken from losing these big pillars in the community. There aren’t words to express the pain or feelings in your chest when tragedies like this happen, taking away people that live larger than life.”
