Son sees mom wading across river lose her footing, get swept away, CA cops say
A woman trying to wade across a river died after she stumbled and got swept away, California deputies say.
Just before 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 24, a man called 911 to say “his mother had just been swept down the Sacramento River,” the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a May 29 Facebook post.
The 66-year-old mother, Jin Yen Lee, of Irvine, was trying to wade across the river “near Hedge Creek Falls, when she lost her footing and was carried downstream,” the man told deputies.
Deputies said they, along with rescuers from Cal Fire and the Dunsmuir Fire Department, started searching the Upper Sacramento River.
Just before 12:30 p.m., Cal Fire rescuers told dispatchers they found and retrieved Lee from the river near the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens, about 1 mile downstream from where she stumbled, according to deputies.
Despite rescuers’ attempts to save the woman on the way to the hospital, they could not revive her, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital, deputies said.
“The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office extends our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms. Lee during this difficult time,” deputies said.
Hedge Creek Falls is in Dunsmuir, about a 210-mile drive north from Sacramento.
This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Son sees mom wading across river lose her footing, get swept away, CA cops say."
