Divers Find Body of Man Drowned on Hiking Trip

Ventura County divers on Sunday recovered the body of a 19-year-old Ventura man who had drowned in a rain-swollen swimming hole near Los Padres National Forest after he dove in to save a friend from the roiling waters.

County sheriff’s search and rescue workers found Dominic Ortega’s body about 9 a.m. caught by currents under the muddy waters of the Devil’s Punchbowl, a natural pool at the end of a popular hiking trail near Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, authorities said.

Friends and relatives said it was not surprising that Ortega--an Air National Guardsman who was studying to be an emergency medical technician--met his death Saturday afternoon trying to rescue a friend from the turbulent waters.

At a Sunday afternoon wake at Ortega’s family home, mourners remembered him as a person whose life’s goal was to help others through his work in the medical field.

“That he died like this, to save a friend, is perfectly in character,” said Barbara Cox, a family friend.

Susan Doherty, Ortega’s mother, spoke about her son’s dedication to a career of helping others in the medical profession. He was working at the Ventura County Medical Center and was enrolled in Ventura College classes to become an emergency medical technician.

“My son was always worried about the other guy,” Doherty said. “He would always instinctively try to help someone else if he had the chance.”

Ortega began a hike Saturday on the Santa Paula Canyon trail with two old friends, Darrel Brown, a 21-year-old Marine on vacation in the area, and Brian Smith, 20, a fellow guardsman, Doherty said.

The trio made the four-mile trek over a winding, mountainous path that they had each walked several times before, Smith said Saturday.

Brown decided to take a swim when the group reached the trail’s end at the Devil’s Punchbowl, Sheriff’s Deputy Al Moussa said. Witnesses said Brown was almost immediately pulled under by the current.

When Ortega saw his friend struggling in the waters, he dove in to help. Meanwhile, Smith extended a branch toward both men. Brown was able to use the stick to pull himself to safety, but Ortega was not, witnesses told deputies.

Devil’s Punchbowl is usually a placid 10-foot-deep swimming hole frequented by hikers on treks into Los Padres National Forest.

But last week’s rains doubled the depth of the pool and turned Santa Paula Creek into a swift-moving stream that spilled large volumes of rushing water into the pool 10-15 feet below. The waterfall creates the hydraulic current that dragged Ortega below the surface, Lt. Arve Wells said.

“With these type of conditions, especially the high waters, it becomes very dangerous to swim in the pools,” he said.

Hikers called search and rescue workers about 3 p.m. and divers were flown into the area by helicopter about 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Wells said. Would-be rescuers called off their attempts to locate Ortega at dusk, after one diver received minor head injuries when the currents forced him into the rocks.

The search resumed about 8 a.m. Sunday, Wells said. Nine divers were flown to a small knoll about half a mile from Devil’s Punchbowl, where they were joined by 13 members of the Upper Ojai Search and Rescue team.

Before entering the water, team members strung safety lines across the pool and tethered divers to a second set of ropes anchored to the shoreline. Rescue workers monitored the safety lines as divers searched the zero-visibility water solely by sense of touch, Wells said.

Other divers stood poised above the pool, ready to jump in to help if the main divers were overcome by the current.

Ortega’s body was flown to Ventura County Medical Center late Sunday morning, where Deputy Coroner Zelmira Isaac ruled his death an accidental drowning.

Wells said there have been at least four other drownings in the Devil’s Punchbowl and adjacent pools since 1984. The incidents most often occur during high water periods after storms, he said.

Ortega’s friends and family hoped that his death would warn others of the dangers of swimming in Santa Paula Creek.

“You have to tell people how dangerous it is to go swimming up there,” Cox said during Sunday’s wake. “They have to know not to do that.”

Doherty said an honor guard funeral at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Base is being planned for later this week.