MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — A Pennsylvania couple drowned in a rip current while vacationing with their six children at a Florida beach Thursday.
According to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, 51-year-old Brian Warter and 48-year-old Erica Wishard, along with their six "mostly teenage" children, were having a beach day on Hutchinson Island when the tragedy occurred.
Officials said the family was swimming in the ocean when Warter, Wishard and two of the kids got swept into a rip current. The teens were able to break the current and attempt to help their parents, but had to swim to shore because it got too dangerous, the sheriff's office said.
Martin County Ocean Rescue located the couple and brought them to shore for CPR. The rescue efforts continued in an ambulance on the way to the hospital where the sheriff's office said doctors "gave it every last effort" before declaring the couple dead.
A Martin County Sheriff's Crisis Intervention Team deputy assisted the couple's children throughout the rest of the day and evening as they awaited other family members to get to Florida.