Jesse H. Bullock Sr, 37, died on Thursday morning near Moline, Illinois
A father has died in the same river where his two sons drowned four years ago.
Jesse H. Bullock Sr, 37, died on Thursday morning when his truck ran off the road and into the Edwards River near Moline, Illinois, not far from where his two boys drowned in a 2013 swimming accident.
Young brothers Jesse Bullock Jr, 12, and Nic Bullock, 9, were wading in the shallow river on a hot summer day when they suddenly fell into a deep 15-foot drop-off.
At the time, grieving father Bullock Sr said the boys had been working all week in the fields and had just wanted to cool off.
‘It was an accident. We knew the risk of letting them go down there. We’re country boys. A hot summer day, you go fishing. Relax,’ he told WQAD.
First responders at the scene of Bullock’s death. His car ran off the road into the Edwards River
In 2013, Bullock and his wife Emily grieved the death of two sons, Jesse Jr and Nic, who drowned in the same spot where Bullock has now died in a car crash
Jesse Bullock, 12, (left) and Nic Bullock, 9, (right) drowned in the Edwards River in July 2013 when they were wading in the water and fell into a deep-15-foot drop-off. They are pictured with their mother, Emily, and youngest brother
‘Me and my friends grew up here. I know a couple hundred people that have been in and out of that water all their lives,’ said Bullock Sr.
Bullock Sr was a Navy veteran and volunteer firefighter with the Keithsburg Fire Department, according to his obituary.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The Mercer County Coroner did not immediately return a message from DailyMail.com on Saturday.
‘The vehicle was in the stream, actually in the stream bed,’ Mercer County Sheriff David Staley told WQAD.
‘Ironic, I guess, that it happened in the same location’ as the sons’ drowning, said Staley.
Bullock Sr was a family man who enjoyed fishing, working on cars, off-roading and spending time with loved ones, his obituary said.
He is survived by his wife Emily and children Savannah and Thomas.
This is the Edwards River, where the boys drowned and their father has now died in a car crash