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Search continues for woman, child following fatal tubing excursion on Dan River

Rescue teams plan to return to the Dan River on Saturday to continue searching for a woman and a child who have been missing since late Wednesday, following a tubing excursion that left three people dead.

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By
Bryan Mims
, WRAL reporter, & Matthew Burns, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor
EDEN, N.C. — Rescue teams plan to return to the Dan River on Saturday to continue searching for a woman and a child who have been missing since late Wednesday, following a tubing excursion that left three others dead.

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said the tubers were swept over the Duke Energy dam in Eden on Wednesday evening, but authorities weren't notified until Thursday afternoon. A Duke employee noticed someone at the base of the dam needing assistance and called for a rescue team, the sheriff said.

Four people were rescued near the dam after clinging to their inner-tubes in the water for nearly 19 hours, said Rodney Cates, emergency services director for Rockingham County.

"They were very, very fatigued [and] very strained from the elements of the day [and] the night and the physical strength it took to hold on till we got somebody there," Cates said.

The bodies of three others, identified as Bridish Crawford, 27, of Eden, Antonio Ramon, 30, of Eden, and Sophie Wilson, 14, of LaPorte, Ind., were found 2½ to 3 miles downriver from the dam.

Page identified the four people rescued as Reuben Villino, 30, of Eden, his 14-year-old son, Eric, his 18-year-old daughter, Irene, and 14-year-old Karlos Villino, a relative visiting from LaPorte, Ind.

They were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of minor injuries, but authorities didn't know their conditions as of Friday evening.

"I can't imagine going over the dam, and I can't imagine going from dark, say 8:30 or 9 at night until [Thursday afternoon] at 3:30 or 4. That's got to be tough," Page said.

The dam has an 8-foot drop, and the sheriff said he doesn't know why the group went near the dam, which has warning signs on both banks of the river to keep away.

"That's a dangerous spot for any overhead dam," he said, noting the force of the churning water at the base creates an undertow that can hold people underwater for a long time.

"I always tell people [to] be careful when you are near a dam because of the hydraulic situation," he added. "If you have enough water coming over it, it can put you in a dangerous situation."

The two still missing were identified as Theresa Villino, 30, of Eden, who is Reuben Villino's sister, and Isaiah Crawford, 7, of Eden, who is Bridish Crawford's son.

"At this point, it's still a rescue effort," Cates said of the search. "We have recovered three people, but we want to remain positive and optimistic that we will do a rescue [of the final two] rather than a recovery."

None of the three people who died on the river was wearing a life jacket, Cates said, but he said he didn't know if others had life jackets.

"The inner-tube is not a personal flotation device," he said. "If it deflates and the person doesn't have a personal floatation device, then they're struggling in the water."

Numerous law enforcement agencies and search and rescue teams assisted in the search on Friday, including the North Carolina State Highway Patrol helicopter and the Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office in Virginia, which was searching upriver from Danville, Va., Page said.

After 11 hours on the water, authorities suspended the search for the night at about 5 p.m.

Cates said fresh search teams will arrive Saturday morning to put new sets of eyes on the water as they comb it from the dam to the Virginia state line.

"We're in this search until we're told otherwise," Page said, asking people to pray for the two missing people and their families.

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