SAN DIEGO (KSWB/KUSI) — Friends are remembering a man who drowned over the weekend after saving two young nephews of his girlfriend who became caught up in the river current during a weekend fishing trip.
San Diego native Jeff Brady, 51, was on the Colorado River near the Hidden Shores Resort in Yuma, Ariz., with his girlfriend Elen Ellis, his twin brother Greg, and their loved ones.
“They did it almost every weekend during the summer,” Joann Ripley, a longtime friend of Brady, said.
The summer fun quickly turned tragic on Saturday when Ellis’ 10- and 12-year-old nephews were swept away by the river’s current.
“The boys, they know how to swim and everything, so it’s just the current at the river this weekend happened to be pretty strong, and it swept the little one out, and then it just snowballed from there,” Summer Needham, another friend of Brady’s, explained.
Needham said Brady dove into action immediately, swimming out to the boys to keep them above water until they could get help.
While struggling to battle the strong current, Ripley says Greg and his girlfriend, Julie, jumped in after Jeff to help save the boys.
“There was a boat that showed out of nowhere, and they were able to throw the boys on the boat and Julie on the boat, and Greg turned around, and Jeff was gone,” Needham said.
Several agencies, including the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, responded to the river, searching for Brady after he was swept under the water. Shortly after 7 p.m., they found him and pronounced him dead on the scene.
“He was a giant of a man, but his heart was pure gold,” Needham said, smiling.
Brady, Neeham, and Ripley went to the same high school together and had been friends for decades.
“They were the fun boys to be around,” Ripley said when asked what Brady was like in high school, adding that it wasn’t a shock or surprise that he was the one who jumped into the water to save Ellis’ nephews.
She noted, however, that the shock of Brady’s death has been real.
“She’s just heartbroken and misses him,” Ripley said of Jeff’s girlfriend. “She wants the one more hug, the one more walk through the door, the one more everything that she’s not gonna get anymore.”
Even though the friends will miss the hugs, laughs, and fun reunions, they say their proud to know he died a hero.
“We want people to know how amazing he was,” Needham said. “He went out with his angel wings on.”
Needham says she set up a GoFundMe page to support the family after his death.
She adds Jeff moved to Yuma two months ago to take care of his dad, who had some medical concerns, and the money will help support him as they mourn Jeff’s loss.
