Vacation Horror: A California couple heard desperate screams from a beach in Mexico and tried to save a 28-year-old man from a crocodile, only for the nightmare to end in tragedy
A California couple desperately tried to save the life of a 28-year-old man from a deadly crocodile attack at the popular getaway spot Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Jamie Yetter, her fiancé Chris Bury, and her teenage daughter were vacationing at the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa when they were alerted to a man in trouble on Friday around 6.30pm.
The Orange County couple heard terrified screams while on their way to the swimming pool and dropped everything to rush to his aid.
At first they thought the man was stuck in a rip current, only to realize he was being dragged out to sea by a massive crocodile.
The victim, a Mexico native named Irving, was in the tourist town with friends when he was attacked in the ocean.
The fiancé jumped into action and tried to throw a life preserver to Irving, but Irving was in shock and unable to reach it, ABC7 reported.
A Good Samaritan then brought a kayak to the beach, as Bury jumped into the boat without paddles in an attempt to reach and pull the victim to safety.
‘There were no oars. There was really nothing at the beach at all to help,’ Bury told NBC4.
‘We were just scrambling, trying to do what we could,’ he said. ‘I was on the kayak right when he got pulled under.’
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Chris Bury and Jamie Yetter, a California couple, tried to save a 28-year-old man from a crocodile attack in Mexico
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Grainy, unsettling video showed the massive crocodile on the beach
The reptile clamped down on Irving’s thigh with its massive jaws, Yetter said.
‘The size of this crocodile, I mean, his head was as long as my torso, his tail thicker than my legs. He was just turning him, taking him under,’ she told ABC7.
Despite the California family’s brave efforts, the violent crocodile killed the 28-year-old in front of them.
The 28-year-old’s lifeless body was recovered about 12 hours later early Saturday morning.
Unsettling video captured by local media shows the massive crocodile on the beach.
Yetter told Surfer.com that resort staff never warned them about the dangers of the water.
‘They didn’t tell anyone it was dangerous,’ Yetter explained to the outlet.
The mom said she noticed beach signs that warned of jellyfish and stingrays, but didn’t notice an additional symbol that warned of crocodiles.
She said her family initially mistook the crocodile symbol for an iguana.
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The horrific attacked unfolded Friday around 6.30pm near the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa
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The Orange County couple tried to rescue the struggling victim but were unsuccessful
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Aerial view of the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
‘They didn’t tell us we shouldn’t go swimming. Even the next morning, I went down to the ocean. I assumed the beach would be closed,’ Yetter told the outlet.
‘The beach wasn’t closed. There were no no-swimming signs,’ she added.
The suspected crocodile was captured by police, and by Saturday morning beachgoers had already returned to the same stretch of shoreline, with families once again swimming in the water.
The attack occurred near the site of a 2022 crocodile incident that injured two Colorado tourists in Jalisco.
The Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa has not commented on the latest attack.
