North Texas Daily

UPDATE  July 10, 1:30 PM:

Around midnight Sunday evening, Denton County Fire Department assistant fire chief Kenneth Hedges confirmed the body of a missing man swept away by flood waters had been found with the help of the Lewisville dive team.

“The body was turned over to the Denton Police Department who in turn contacted the Tarrant County Medical Examiner,” Hedges said. “They work on actually identifying the body and notifying the next to kin.”

The man has since been identified by the medical examiner, but they are not releasing it until his next of kin is notified.

The man was swept away by high waters in a retention pond behind Walmart in the Rayzor Ranch shopping center after torrential rain Sunday night, according to Hedges.

Two other men were also affected by the high water, but were able to extract themselves and call for help.

Video of the scene where Lewisville & Denton fire are working to locate missing man swept away by high waters. Courtesy @ninaquatrino pic.twitter.com/JoUWsEvyd9

— James T Norman (@JamesTNorman_WL) July 10, 2017

“The Denton Fire Department received a call about 9:15 p.m. for a high-water rescue,” Hedges said.  “There were three males camping in the drench flume. Water came and washed them away – one was pinned up against a wall and then was washed out.”

Jeremy Red, 38, and another man who wished to remain anonymous, said they were sitting in the drainage pipe with the other man who they had met just hours before the accident occurred.

“The water just kept getting higher, and the current kept getting stronger” Red said. “We watched him get hit with debris – I saw him get swept away.”

Both men are homeless, and said they have been through thunderstorms before, however this was unexpected.

“We had a thunderstorm move in tonight, a pretty severe one,” Denton Fire Department Captain Mike Bardwell said Sunday night. “We got a lot of rain in a short period of time.”

Bardwell said a large wall of water came through and swept the men into the drainage pipe, noting during that first hour it was a rescue mission.

“We had our fire department boat in the water [and] we had searchers on the shore,” Bardwell said. “We’ve called Lewisville’s dive team from Fire Station No. 2 and have divers in the water right now.”

Bardwell believed the man may have been trapped in debris in a deep, eroded area where the water comes out from the flume. As of late Sunday evening, the man had yet to surface, but articles of clothing had been found that had confirmed to belong to him.

“We know that he is there, we just can’t find him.” Bardwell said Sunday night. “If and when we find him, we will call medical examiners and a funeral home [if needed]. Hopefully we find him.”