Salt River deaths: Second body recovered adds to river's fatal flow

Phoenix, Arizona: A second body has been recovered from the Salt Lake after two people went underwater and didn’t resurface.

MCSO lake patrol deputies and divers found the body of 25-year-old Abdul Khaliqi Saturday around noon on Saturday. His body was found in eight feet of water.

The incident happened on Wednesday around 5.30pm when Maricopa County Sheriff’s lake patrol deputies were called to Sheep’s Crossing Recreation Site for reports of a drowning. Deputies say multiple people “became distressed” in the water, and at least two people went under and didn’t come back up.

When deputies arrived, they found people performing CPR on a man along the shoreline, roughly 300 yards upstream of Blue Rock Beach on the south side of the river. Deputies and lake patrol paramedics took over chest compressions, but the man was pronounced dead. His name and age have not been released.

In recent years, the Salt River has seen several tragic incidents involving missing persons. In April 2023, two kayakers went missing and their bodies were later recovered after a search by Phoenix Fire Department.

The river flows through the Phoenix metropolitan area and extends for about 200 miles. It originates in the White Mountains and joins the Gila River. The river plays a key role in providing water to the region, with several dams controlling its flow to form reservoirs like Roosevelt Lake and Saguaro Lake.