3 Pulled From Submerged Van Boaters Hear Mother’s Plea, Dive For Children After Minivan Plunges 400 Feet Into Reservoir

Two men jumped into their boats when they heard a woman’s cries for help, and repeatedly dove until they had rescued her three small children trapped in a minivan that had plunged into the Owyhee Reservoir.

Kade Tracy, 2, and Kenzie Tracy, 4, were recovering in hospitals Friday after their harrowing rescue the night before. Their mother, Monica Tracy, 26, and her eldest child, Kylie, 6, were treated and released.

“They were lucky there were people there who did what they did,” Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe said.

Monica Tracy was driving away from the Owyhee Resort about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when she turned to answer one of the children. Just then, the vehicle reached a sharp curve on the winding road and went over the edge.

The minivan rolled six or seven times down 400 to 500 feet, and landed upside down in the water about threequarters of a mile from the resort.

Monica Tracy escaped, and upon surfacing, began yelling for help.

Wolfe said two people on a nearby boat heard her screams, but couldn’t get their boat started. They joined her in yelling for help.

Standing on a nearby dock, John Henry of Gresham and Tim Higgins of Eugene heard their cries, and each got into a boat. It took the men three to four minutes for them to reach the vehicle, visible from atop the water.

Monica Tracy told the men her three babies were strapped inside, and Henry immediately jumped into the water.

The minivan’s sliding side door was locked, but Henry reached through a side window and unlocked it. He retrieved one of the children, who was not breathing, and brought the child to Higgins’ boat.

Higgins performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the child, who began breathing almost immediately.

Meanwhile, Henry had gone down for another child. He had difficulty unbuckling the child, but the child was breathing when they surfaced.

Henry went back down two or three more times in search of the third child, but had no luck, Wolfe said.

Monica Tracy now was in Higgins’ boat caring for Kylie and Kenzie, as Higgins dove for Kade. He found nothing in three tries.

“Then Mr. Henry went down, and he stayed down a long time,” Wolfe said.

He surfaced holding Kade, who was not breathing. Once the boy was in the boat, they hurried to the dock where a nurse and a John Day man began CPR.

“It was quite a while before they got him breathing,” Wolfe said.

By Friday evening, Kade had improved from critical to stable condition at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Boise.

Kenzie was in good condition Friday morning at Holy Rosary Medical Center in Ontario, where a nursing supervisor said she was being held for observation.

Monica and Kylie Tracy were treated at the Ontario hospital and released.

Wolfe said if the vehicle had gone much deeper into the reservoir, it is unlikely anyone could have gotten to the children.

“They were lucky the car just went into one of those little coves where it couldn’t go too deep,” he said.