Survivors of an ill-fated whitewater rafting trip taken to celebrate a friend’s impending wedding have come forward to describe the tragic event.
Luis Beltran’s friends wanted to do something memorable for his bachelor party, so 13 of them got together and planned a weekend trip to Costa Rica from Oct. 18.
Every member of the group was important to Beltran. “These people were all chosen because they all played a part in my life specifically,” Beltran told Good Morning America.
The group flew out of Miami and set up in a rented house on Playa Hermosa de Jaco, a popular swimming and surfing beach on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.
The party had arranged several activities including a whitewater rafting trip down the Naranjo River on Oct. 20.
River Raging, Flood Alerts Issued
On that day, the group traveled to the river where the 14 friends loaded into three rafts along with their five river guides.
The river was running high and fast after days of rain—a flood warning had already been issued by the National Emergency Commission.
The wind was high and the water was rough, and within five minutes of leaving shore, all three rafts had capsized, spilling the friends into the fast-moving water.
According to the account of the survivors’ GoFundMe page, “Everyone struggled to get back on the rafts, with some efforts being successful, but ultimately the rafts continued to capsize due to the immense current.
“Within minutes, all of us were careening down the river with life jackets and helmets just trying to stabilize and find something to hold on to.”
The swift current propelled the friends down the rock-strewn river, slamming them into boulders and sucking them into whirlpools.
Some of the group managed to grab onto rocks or roots, where they clung, awaiting rescue.
Four in the group— Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo, and Andres Dennis, all between the ages of 25–35—were not able to save themselves.
Their drowned bodies were eventually recovered further downstream.
One of the guides, 45-year–old Kevin Thompson Reid, also drowned, ABC News reported.
Watching Friends Disappear—Forever
Sean Estevez, one of the survivors, told Fox News about his memories of the ordeal.
“I thought I was having a heart attack. I was lifeless, I couldn’t move my head, I couldn’t move my arms, I couldn’t move my legs, I was beat up, my knees were banged up,” Estevez said.
Estevez was one of the last people to see Andres Denis alive.
“Andy was next to me and I helped him on the raft while I was in the water,” Estevez said.
“He was on the raft while I was holding on to the raft. The raft flipped again and I never saw him again.”
The surviving friends had to tell the families of the deceased that their loved ones wouldn’t be coming home.
Sean Estevez was chosen to inform the girlfriend of Andres Denis. The couple had been together for 13 years and Denis had planned to propose to her soon after returning.
“I told her that he was with me and I didn’t see him again and, ‘Chloe, I don’t have facts. I don’t know,’” he said.
When he first told her, she simply refused to believe he was serious, ABC reported.
“Do you know how difficult it was for me to speak to Andy’s soon-to-be fiancée?” Estevez asked. “They were each other’s lives.”
Denis had just graduated college and was studying for his LSATS, his family told ABC News.
The survivors have started a GoFundMe page to help pay for the victims’ funerals and to provide some financial relief to the children of Sergio Lorenzo.
Lorenzo was the groom-to-be Luis Beltran’s brother. His children are Beltran’s nieces and nephews.
Incident Under Investigation
According to ABC News, the incident is being investigated by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Organization.
Officers had raided the offices of Quepoa Expeditions, the company running the trip.
Because of the “yellow alert” flood warnings issued by the National Emergency Commission, no other rafting companies were operating on the Naranjo River that day.
According to the members of the Bachelor party, the staff never told them that the river was unusually high and that there were safety warnings in effect.
