A California couple made a frantic attempt to rescue a 28-year-old man during a fatal crocodile attack at a well-known vacation destination in Mexico.
Jamie Yetter, her fiancé Chris Bury, and Yetter’s teenage daughter were staying at the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa when they heard that a man was in distress on Friday evening.
The couple from Orange County were heading toward the pool when screams rang out, prompting them to abandon what they were doing and rush toward the emergency.
They initially believed the swimmer had been caught in a rip current, but soon realized a large crocodile was pulling him farther into the ocean.
The victim, identified as Irving, a Mexican national, had been visiting the tourist hotspot with friends when he was attacked in the water and killed.
Bury quickly tried to help by throwing a life ring toward Irving, but the 28-year-old appeared to be in shock and could not get to it, according to ABC7.
Another bystander then brought a kayak down to the beach, and Bury climbed in despite there being no paddles, hoping to reach Irving and bring him back to shore.
“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.’
Chris Bury and Jamie Yetter, a California couple, tried to save a 28-year-old man from a crocodile attack in Mexico
A 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 reptile killed the 28-year-old in front of them.
His body was recovered about 12 hours later, early Saturday morning.
Unsettling video captured by local media shows the massive crocodile on the beach.
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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 warning about jellyfish and stingrays, but did not notice an additional reference to crocodiles.
She said her family initially mistook that symbol for an iguana.
The attack unfolded Friday around 6.30pm near the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa
The Orange County couple tried to rescue the struggling victim but were unsuccessful
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 crocodile is said to have been 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.
It happened near Jalisco, where two Colorado tourists were injured in a separate incident in 2022.
The Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa has not commented on the latest attack.
