Friday, October 11, 2024

Siskiyou County Man Dives Into Base of Waterfall and Tragically Drowns Trying to Save Family Dogs

The following is a press release from Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office:


Rescuers on scene attempting to locate Robert Lewis, the man who jumpted into the base of the waterfall [All pictures by SCSO]

Saturday, June 4, at approximately 12:12 p.m., the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) received a 9-1–1 call of a drowning victim in the area of Shackleford Falls in the Scott Valley area. The caller stated her husband, 47-year-old Robert Lewis of Montague, CA had gone into the base of the waterfall to rescue two of the family’s dogs. Lewis’ wife stated she saw her husband get swept under by the strong current and did not resurface.

A multi-agency response was deployed, including the SCSO Search and Rescue, SCSO Dive Team, and CAL FIRE Siskiyou Unit Water Rescue. Emergency responders searched the area as daylight allowed on Saturday.

Sunday morning, during a continued search, a water search canine provided by Siskiyou County Search and Rescue signaled the area of the pool at the base of the waterfall where Lewis was believed to have drowned.

Unfortunately, due to the amount of rain overnight, increased water flow made for unsafe diving conditions, even for experienced emergency swimmers. Multiple recovery tools were deployed in an effort to locate Lewis. Additionally, several CAL FIRE rescue divers deployed on floatation devices downriver.

At about 1:50 p.m., Sunday afternoon, Lewis was located underwater and recovered by the SCSO Dive Team.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Damnn, bet that was completely unexpected…wonder what his last thoughts were.

    Crazy how life can suddenly flipside so fast.

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MendoFever Staff
MendoFever Staff
Editor's Note: Whenever an article's byline reads "MendoFever Staff", the contents of that article were not composed by any of our reporters. Types of writing that will be attributed to "MendoFever Staff" include press releases, letters to the editor, op-eds, obituaries— essentially writing that is not produced by a reporter.

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