A kayaking trip in Arizona ended in heartbreak after a husband desperately shouted for help when his wife fell into a river and couldn’t swim, only for both of them to drown before rescuers could reach them.
Cindy Bowers, 68, and her husband, Anthony Beringer, 59, of Chandler, Arizona, were enjoying an afternoon on the lower Salt River on Saturday, October 31, when their inflatable kayak reportedly capsized, plunging the couple into the water.
According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, emergency dispatchers received a frantic report around 1:34 p.m. that a man was yelling for help as he and his wife floated downstream.
Beringer was reportedly shouting that his wife could not swim as he struggled to get the attention of people along the riverbank.
But within moments, the situation turned deadly.
Investigators said Bowers disappeared beneath the water, followed shortly afterward by her husband. Some reports suggest Beringer was attempting to reach his wife when he also went under, although authorities have not confirmed exactly what happened during their final moments.
Emergency crews launched an urgent search using the sheriff’s office FOX1 helicopter and an airboat to locate the missing couple.
At approximately 2:11 p.m., rescuers recovered Bowers’ body from the river.
The search continued for her husband, whose body was discovered farther upstream around 3 p.m., nearly 90 minutes after the initial call for help.
Neither survived.
Authorities confirmed that the couple had been sharing a single inflatable kayak and that neither was wearing a life jacket when the accident occurred.
The deaths have devastated loved ones in the Phoenix-area community where Bowers and Beringer lived together.
Paul Gleason, who identified Bowers as his cousin, shared news of the tragedy on social media, while neighbors expressed their shock over the sudden loss.
“Cindy & Tony were our neighbors across the street,” Chandler resident Kara Briscoe Liethen wrote.
The devastating accident unfolded during a weekend of dangerous weather across Arizona, where an atmospheric river brought unusually heavy rainfall, flash flooding and rapidly changing water conditions.
The storms saturated the ground and caused water levels to rise in rivers and washes throughout the region.
A day after the couple drowned, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office issued an urgent warning advising residents and visitors to stay away from the lower Salt River because of unusually high water releases from the Salt River Project.
“Increased flows can create dangerous currents and rapidly changing conditions,” the department warned.
Officials explained that additional water was being released from reservoirs as authorities worked to manage the runoff from the weekend storms.
The increased flow created potentially hazardous conditions for anyone entering the river, even in areas that might ordinarily appear calm.
The lower Salt River, located east of Phoenix near Mesa, is a popular destination for kayaking, tubing and wildlife watching. Visitors regularly travel there to enjoy the scenic desert landscape and catch glimpses of wild horses along the riverbanks.
But the waterway can also be unpredictable, particularly following heavy rainfall or increased dam releases.
Authorities have not determined whether high water levels or stronger currents directly contributed to Bowers and Beringer’s deaths.
The incident has also renewed warnings about the importance of wearing properly fitted life jackets while kayaking, regardless of swimming ability or experience on the water.
Even relatively calm rivers can contain unexpected currents, submerged obstacles and sudden changes in depth that make it difficult to stay afloat after falling from a boat.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office continues investigating the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, including what caused the couple to end up in the water.
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