David and Sabrina Jaramillo took their family to an amusement park on Saturday to celebrate their eldest son’s birthday, but now their son is dead and their other child is in a medically induced coma.
The Jaramillos had gone on several other rides before getting in line for the Raging River at Adventureland Park, a family-owned amusement park in Altoona, a suburb of Iowa's capital city, Des Moines. The parents boarded a raft with their 15-year-old son, David; their 14-year-old son, August; their 11-year-old son, Michael; and their niece, Nyla. As they buckled their seatbelts and embarked on the river rapids ride, their tube suddenly flipped over, leaving them all trapped underwater.
"I see the silhouettes of my sons trying to grab each other, grab us," the father recalled. "They want us to help them. We couldn't do it."
Both parents as well as one of their sons and their niece ultimately managed to break free and swim to the surface. But David and Michael were still stuck, and no one could reach them.