Searchers find body of ‘awesome mom’ who jumped into San Joaquin River to help daughter
Volunteer searchers on Saturday recovered the body of a mother who days earlier jumped into the San Joaquin River to help her struggling 11-year-old daughter, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Brenda Duran, 30, was reported missing at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday from the Fisherman’s Bend trailer park near Newman. Her family lives at Fisherman’s Bend.
She had jumped in to aid her child, who was struggling to stay above water. Duran also began to struggle, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release, and when her 14-year-old son saw what was happening, he, too, jumped into the water to help. “Duran’s son and daughter safely made it out of the river, but Duran did not.,” the release says.
“Everybody loved her,” cousin Aurora Padilla Duran said Saturday on the small beach where the family had played. “She was always a happy person, always laughing. She was an awesome mom.”
An autopsy will be conducted this week to determine cause of death, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Brenda Duran and husband Jaime Aguilar had moved just two weeks ago from Washington state, her cousin said. They were unemployed, so the family planned to set up a GoFundMe account to help with expenses.
Fisherman’s Bend is one of several trailer parks that provide lower-cost housing along with river access. The beach is down a small bluff from the River Road entrance.
The San Joaquin is relatively high due to upstream reservoir releases, though less than during the major storms of early 2023.
The search also involved aircraft from the sheriff and Modesto Police Department, the West Stanislaus County Fire Protection District, Patterson District Ambulance, AMR ambulance, chaplains, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office and the Newman Police Department.
