Marcus L. Martin knew the Scioto River was a trap. A Baptist pastor who has spent a decade boating these Ohio waters, he knew the exact spot where the bottom drops out. On Sunday, he saw five adults wading waist-deep in the shallows. He felt a sudden, sharp unease.
He didn’t warn them. There were boats in the way, and he didn’t want to cause a scene. Now, he can’t sleep.
On his way back two hours later, the group was still there. Martin grabbed his phone and snapped a photo. It was pure instinct. “I just need to capture this picture,” he recalled thinking. It turned out to be a portrait of the dead.
The mechanics of the tragedy were simple and brutal. Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said one person began to drown, and the others went in after them, one by one. The river swallowed them all. Two women were pulled from the water Sunday; three men were recovered the next day.
Martin tried to give his photo to the cops and the reporters swarming the scene. Nobody wanted it. But the math adds up. His photo shows five adults in the water and two children on the bank—the exact makeup of the doomed party.
Four of the victims were Honduran nationals, including Jose Mario Pineda Dias, 33, and his wife, Marina Suyapa Regalado, 28. The others haven’t been named.
The survivors are two kids, ages eight and ten. They watched their parents sink from the grassy bank. Now, they are sitting in an Ohio shelter, waiting for embassy officials and distant relatives to decide their fate. A quick Sunday swim, ended in seconds.
