24-year-old dead after being recovered from canal in Mendota
MENDOTA, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A 24-year-old man reported missing in the Mendota area on Tuesday night was pulled from a canal close to the Mendota Pool Park on Wednesday.
According to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, the call about the missing person was received around 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday but deputies say the darkness at the time made searching for the victim difficult and it had to be called off. The search restarted the next morning and the victim’s body was recovered around 9:15 a.m.
“No one is really going to know what happened. The only person who knows that for sure can’t answer those questions anymore,” said Sgt. Chris Tullus with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. “We have a general idea of what happened, but we can’t confirm it right now.”
Sgt. Tullus says the victim was at the canal with his girlfriend and they decided to go fishing. Officials have not officially released the identity of the victim, but the victim’s family has named him as 24-year-old Jairo Romero.
Jairo Romero’s brother, Michael Romero, says he knows his sibling had a seizure which led to him going into the water. The Mendota High School graduate played basketball on Tuesday before wanting to go to the canal to fish.
“There’s nothing that we haven’t seen in these banks, we know them like the back of our hands,” said Michael. “We grew up in Mendota. There’s not much to do out here other than, you know, grab a rod and come out here.”
Michael Romero says his brother’s seizures began around two years ago and required 24-hour care since.
The official cause of Jairo Romero’s death is yet to be officially released by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
