Three people have been found dead in the Colorado River, one woman is still missing. For days, Mohave County sheriff's deputies have searched for the victims of the two-boat collision. Law enforcement said they won't stop until the final victim, a Ventura woman who attended school in Visalia, is found. Here's what is known about the fatal collision. When did it happen? The incident that sparked the multi-agency, multi-state operation happened Saturday around 8 p.m. Mohave County Sheriff Doug Schuster said that a boat carrying 10 people and another vessel with six people on board collided head-on Saturday night on the river that borders California and Arizona. Both boats sank and passing boaters pulled victims from the water, he said. The boats collided between two popular marinas near Moabi Regional Park, a well-traveled recreation area crowded with people enjoying the Labor Day weekend, the sheriff's office said. Helicopters were deployed, and authorities scoured the shoreline to try to find the missing boaters. Divers have been sent out into the river's waters, which can range from shallow to 30 feet deep. While the cause of the collision is being investigated. Some witnesses said neither boat had lights on at the time of the collision. None of the boaters wore life jackets, which aren't required but are recommended by authorities, Schuster said. Who is involved? Mojave deputies have confirmed that at least two of the victims were from Tulare County — Chrisi Lewis and Brian Grabowski. Lewis is from Visalia and Grabowski is from Tulare. One woman, Raegan Heitzig, is still missing and has connections to Visalia. The missing woman, Raegan Heitzig, is an El Diamante High School graduate. She now lives in Ventura, according to her Facebook profile. Two other Tulare County residents were on the boat — Jordan Heitzig and Tabby Grabowski, Brian's wife, family and friends wrote on social media posts. Injuries Tabby Grabowski, a Tulare Union High School teacher, and Jordan Heitzig were airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas. Both are expected to recover from their injuries. Eight other boaters were taken to local hospitals by ambulance, officials said. Victims Chrisi Lewis, 51, was found dead Monday morning. Lewis is the step-daughter of former Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman, according to Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux. She was a charge nurse at Kaweah Delta Medical Center. On Tuesday around 9 a.m., Brian Grabowski, 50, was found by Mohave County sheriff's detectives. Grabowski was a board-certified ocularist. His company, Grabowski and Associates, specializes in custom acrylic ocular prosthetics and has locations throughout California. The third victim of the fatal collision was found by Mohave Sheriff's deputies hours after Grabowski was found. Kirra Drury's body was pulled from the Colorado River Tuesday afternoon, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Department. Search operations began this morning at 6:30 and will continue throughout the day and into the weekend, if needed. Divers and search and rescue units are on scene and drones and helicopters will be used during search efforts. Search efforts The river remains open, but boaters are being asked to remember that dive teams are in the water. "To clear up potential confusion, the River itself has not been closed. We have and will continue to stop the flow of traffic in designated search areas for the safety of the personnel involved," Schuster said. "We appreciate your ongoing cooperation while these areas are shut down." While the search has reached nearly five miles in every direction of the collision, dive teams are focusing in certain areas. "We have exhausted our broad-based dive efforts but will continue with area location dive operations along with topwater and shoreline search patterns," Schuster said. "It is our deepest desire to provide a measure of closure for the family and all involved. We will continue to do everything within our means to do so and pray for a speedy resolution."<doc-sep>A night on the Colorado River turned tragic when two boats crashed and sank, casting 16 passengers into the rushing water. Four people — three women and one man — were still missing, officials said. The collision occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday between Pirates Cove and the Topock Marina near Moabi Regional Park on the California-Arizona border, authorities said. Search-and-rescue divers were in the water searching for bodies. “I don’t want to give the interpretation that there isn’t a real possibility that they made it to shore,” Mohave County Sheriff Doug Schuster said at an afternoon news briefing. “We are actively treating this as a potential drowning.” The river was packed with holiday visitors at the time of the incident. Those aboard the boats were friends and family, some visiting from outside the area. None of them were wearing life jackets, officials said. Advertisement “It is not mandated that they do, though we encourage it,” Schuster said. It was not clear yet whether alcohol or speeding played a role in the crash, authorities said. The accident occurred just after sunset and low light conditions probably played a role. The Hallett boat carrying 10 people was headed northbound when it collided head-on with a southbound Sleekcraft boat carrying six people, authorities said. Four passengers from the Hallett boat were missing. Two people in critical condition were flown to a hospital in Las Vegas, authorities said. Nine others were taken to hospitals by ambulance. Authorities said no children were on board. “The two boats hit head on at about 50 mph,” knocking more than a dozen people into the water, according to an emergency dispatcher whose report was broadcast on local TV stations. Both boats sank and several people were pulled from the water by passing boaters. Eric Sherwin, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire District, told 3TV/CBS-5 that the river moves fast and can reach depths of up to 30 feet. “We had victims of this collision that were located three to five miles downstream from the original point of impact,” Sherwin said. Advertisement Saturday night, helicopters from Care Flight, the Arizona Department of Public Safety Air Rescue and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department were deployed to the river. The search was called off about 10 p.m. before resuming again early Sunday. Schuster said officials would keep searching the water each day until dark. “We will continue to search until all those who are missing and unaccounted for have been located,” he said. A stretch of the river may be closed intermittently during the recovery effort. Advertisement Investigators at the scene Sunday of a boating accident the night before on the Colorado River north of Lake Havasu. (Mohave County Sheriff’s Office) Four people are still missing after two boats collided on the Colorado River on Saturday. (Los Angeles Times) esmeralda.bermudez@latimes.com @LATBermudez Advertisement UPDATES: 5:50 p.m.: This article was updated with more information from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department. 4:35 p.m.: This article was updated with new information from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department. This article was originally posted at 12:30 p.m.<doc-sep>Family and friends of Kirra Drury and Raegan Heitzig are desperate to find the women after they were thrown from a boat in a crash on the Colorado River Two young women and a man remained missing on Tuesday after a boating accident over the weekend left one person dead and nine injured, authorities say. Close friends Kirra Drury and Raegan Heitzig, both of Ventura, California, have been missing since 8 p.m. on Saturday after a boat they were on crashed head-on into another vessel. The women, along with 14 other passengers, were thrown from the boats into the Colorado River in California. Get push notifications with news, features and more. “My heart is breaking,” Drury’s mother, Denise Olson Drury, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. She added in a follow-up message: “We are praying for a miracle.” Officials have not publicly identified the women, but friends and family have released Drury and Heitzig’s identities in a desperate search for the friends. colorado-river-4 Credit: Instagram “There was a horrific boating accident,” a family friend of Drury’s wrote on a GoFundMe page for Drury’s mother and sister, Kaley Drury. “This is undoubtedly every mother and sister’s worst nightmare.” On Monday, search teams found the body of 51-year-old Christine Lewis, of Visalia, California, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday. At a press conference a day earlier, Sheriff Doug Schuster said nine people were injured, two critically, in the incident. Along with Drury and Heitzig, authorities are looking for 49-year-old Brian Grabowski, of Tulare, according to KFSN. Officials with the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE. colorado-river-3 Chrisi Lewis | Credit: Facebook As the search for the three continued on Tuesday, Drury and Heitzig’s social media accounts gives a glimpse into the womens’ friendship and their Labor Day weekend getaway. “They loving the crew,” Drury captioned a shot of herself alongside Heitzig and two friends. Heitzig shared a clip of herself attempting to nap on the boat writing, “Swipe to see what it really looks like when you pass out at the lake. expectation—->reality.” Both vessels were going 50 mph at the time of the crash, and the boaters weren’t wearing life jackets, according to ABC News. The vessels collided on a stretch of the Colorado River north near Lake Havasu. colorado-river-2 Brian Grabowski | Credit: Facebook During the press conference, Schuster said there is a “remote” possibility that Heitzig, Drury and Grabowski made it to shore but “technically it’s a dive mission looking for potential drowned victims.” On Monday, Lance Nelson, who Drury identified on social media as her boyfriend, shared an Instagram photo of him and Drury sharing a kiss.<doc-sep>
The body of one of four people missing in a California boating crash was found. One of four people missing since two boats packed with people collided on Saturday night on the Colorado River in California was recovered Monday morning, officials said. Officials said two recreational boats, one carrying 10 people and the other with six, collided head-on. Both vessels were going about 50 mph when the crash occurred, ejecting all 16 boaters into the water. As search-and-rescue crews continued to look for three other boaters who vanished in a popular section of the river near the California-Arizona border, authorities identified the body recovered Monday as Christi Lewis, 51, of California. Lewis' body was pulled from the river about 7:30 a.m. by divers, according to officials at Mohave County Sheriff's Office Division of Boating Safety. "The Mohave County Sheriff's Office will continue to patrol the Colorado River until all the unaccounted for passengers are located," the statement from the agency reads. Two other women and a man, whose names have not been released, remain missing in the Labor Day weekend tragedy. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office announced the search for the remaining three people was suspended Monday night due to "darkness, fatigue, and safety concerns." One diver was injured in the recovery efforts, the sheriff's office said Monday. The injury was termed minor and related to illness. "This detective has been very tenacious with his involvement by participating in over ten dives the last two days trying to do his best to help the family members get some sort of closure," the sheriff's office said. "He is an experienced diver and has served on the department’s dive team for over 15 years with our dive team." Temperatures reached 100 degrees on Monday in the region. The crash happened around 8 p.m. Saturday near Moabi Regional Park on a stretch of the Colorado River north of Lake Havasu. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office will continue to patrol the Colorado River until all the unaccounted for passengers are located. Two people were critically injured in the crash and flown to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, officials said. Another seven people were taken to hospitals by ambulance and treated for less serious injuries, officials said. None of the boaters were wearing life-jackets at the time of the crash, officials said. Following the crash, other boaters in the area rushed to pull survivors from the water, officials said.