Man’s body found in River Murray at Blanchetown, SA
UPDATE: Family members were left devastated as the body of a young man was pulled from the Murray River, in what police described as a “tragic, catastrophic waste of a young life”.
POLICE have recovered the body of a young man who disappeared in the River Murray after jumping off a 20m-high bridge at Blanchetown.
Emergency services had been searching for the 20-year-old Hillbank man since he leapt from the Sturt Highway bridge into 4m-deep water just after 11am on Sunday.
Police divers found him near the bridge about 3.40pm.
Murray Mallee superintendent James Blandford described the incident as a “tragic, catastrophic waste of a young life”.
“You only have to see the absolute grief the family and friends are now going through,” he said.
“They won’t see this young man grow and achieve all the things in his life that he should have achieved because of, realistically, a reckless stunt gone wrong.
“It’s a heartbreaking way to start the river season.”
Superintendent Blandford said the young man and his friends had spent the weekend in the Riverland and were on their way back to Adelaide when the incident occured.
He urged people not to jump off bridges into water because “you don’t know what’s underneath (and) you don’t know how deep it is”.
“It’s particularly dangerous at the moment with the flows from the floods (because) there’s a very strong current and there’s snags and rubbish being blown down the river,” he said.
Brittany Sims, 21, of Salisbury, was on the riverbank a few hundred metres away when the man jumped.
“There was a group of teenagers and they were on the bridge and one jumped and he didn’t come up,” she said.
“I don’t know if he (got) stuck on a log or what happened.”
Jakson Hill, of Parafield Gardens, jumped on his jet ski and rode over to the bridge when he saw people in distress.
“There was a girl and a guy down the bottom (of the bridge) and they were calling out his name and the one up the top (on the bridge) was on the phone to the police,” he said.
“The guy was freaking out. He was distraught.”
Mr Hill, 22, said the distressed man told him his friend was not wearing a life jacket when he entered the water.
He said there was no explanation given for the jump.
Mr Hill was among several members of the public who helped search for the man.
Hayley Furner, 26, of Parafield Gardens, saw the aftermath of the tragedy and said it was “so sad”.