DAYTON — Two bodies were pulled from the Great Miami River on Monday, days after personal belongings were discovered along the riverbank.
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Rescue crews were called to West Monument and West Riverview around 1:19 p.m. after a caller told dispatchers they spotted what they believed to be a body in the water.
News Center 7 spoke with Damon Bluthenthal Jr., who said he was the one who called 911.
Bluthenthal Jr. said he often paints near the river.
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He spotted turtles on a sandbar from the Monument Street Bridge, then spotted something suspicious.
“As I got closer down, I saw the body, the blood on the shirt, the hair,” he said.
Firefighters quickly put boats in the water to find what the caller described as a woman or girl.
Rescue crews found the body described by the caller.
“Once we found the one body, we did the grid search and we ended up finding a second body,” Mike Fasnacht, district fire chief with Dayton Fire Department, said.
Fasnacht could not confirm who the people they recovered are.
He did confirm that the department had crews on the water for 12 combined hours on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12.
That happened after Dayton police reported a child, Scarlibeth Garcia Montes, and a man, Oscar Garcia, missing.
Officers said they found Scarlibeth’s shoes, socks, keys, a tablet, and a cell phone were all located near the Great Miami River.
“Water is dangerous in general, and to get into the water, if you’re not a good swimmer, you should have a life preserver,” Fasnacht said.
Dayton police said their homicide squad is investigating the case.
The two bodies will have to be identified by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
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