PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities in Florida say a Downingtown, Pennsylvania couple drowned this week while vacationing with their six children.
Police say it happened on a barrier island near Port St. Lucie Thursday afternoon.
While swimming with two of their six children, Brian Warter, 51, and Erica Wishard, 48, got caught in a rip current off Hutchinson Island, according to Chief Deputy John Budensiek of the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
The two children in their teens swam out to try to rescue their parents but the current proved too strong and they were forced to return to shore.
"One of the children, an adult, had called 911, and our dispatchers could hear that child yelling to their parents to swim diagonally to try to talk them through fighting a rip current. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful,” he said.
Rescuers arrived and began CPR on shore, but the couple couldn't be saved.
Members of the Martin County Sheriff's Crisis Intervention team are with the six children as they await the arrival of other family members to Florida.