Authorities have identified the man whose body was recovered a day after he went missing in the Pedernales River at Reimers Ranch Park on July 2.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office said the body of Zayd Mustafa, 22, of Sugar Land was found around 11:30 a.m. July 3. Austin-Travis County EMS said the body that was found was identified as a man in his 20s.
Initially, Austin-Travis County EMS was called to the scene Sunday for a report of two brothers who had not resurfaced in the 23610 block of Hamilton Pool Road at 4:30 p.m.
Three minutes later, Lake Travis firefighters said one of the brothers, also in his 20s, was rescued while Zayd was still missing. The rescued brother was taken by STAR Flight to Dell Seton Medical Center in critical condition, EMS said. An update on his condition is not available as of 1:45 p.m. July 5.
After Zayd was reported to be under water for 30 minutes, Lake Travis Fire confirmed that teams transitioned into recovery mode with the assistance of the Travis County Sheriff's Office at 5 p.m.
TCSO Public Information Officer Kristen Dark said the brothers were trying to swim across the river when one of them went under water. Dark said that's when the second brother tried to rescue him, but he went under water too. Neighboring swimmers saw the situation and were able to rescue one of the brothers, but the other did not resurface.
"It is that time of year when it is so hard for us to come forward and talk about things like this; we hate it when things like this happen.This is a time when it's a whole lot of fun and people are out enjoying our beautiful county with their family, and tragedy strikes," Dark said. "To our knowledge, this young man was not wearing a flotation device; that, of course, would have helped matters significantly."
Dark said the river is roughly only 12 feet deep, but with the recent rainfall, it is possible debris built up in the water.