A 22-year-old Iowa man drowned in St. Augustine on Tuesday while honeymooning with his new wife. Cheyenne Hedrick told deputies she was swimming with her new husband, Dalton Cottrell, when the ocean current carried him deeper into the ocean.
William Loy, a witness, told St. John's County Sheriff's deputies he heard yelling coming from the ocean and grabbed his paddle board and went into the water to assist, according to a sheriff's office news release. Loy reached a St. John County lifeguard who was also trying to rescue Cottrell.
The lifeguard placed Cottrell, who appeared gray and foaming from the mouth, on Loy's paddle board, the news release states.
Deputies made contact with Hedrick who said she and her husband were on their honeymoon and it was his first time at the ocean and he started to "freak out," the news release states. Hedrick said she tried to assist her husband, but she was unable because he was pulling her under.
"3 days of wedded bliss turned into a nightmare very quickly for the Cottrell family as well as mine own," Hedrick posted on Facebook. "...Never did I think at 22 would I be a wife and then a widow so quickly."
She says that right now there are no details for a funeral, but they hope to know more in the next several days.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family cover funeral expenses. They are working to raise $12,000. As of 5:40 p.m.Wednesday, they had raised $9,680 of that goal amount.
