3 Floridians, Dog Die After Falling Into Cistern In Texas Field

BASTROP COUNTY, TX — Three Florida residents and their dog died after police said they fell into an underground cistern while hog hunting in a rural Texas corn field.

In a statement posted to social media, the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office said authorities were called to the area around 1 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a report about three people trapped in a hole in the ground north of Elgin.

Investigators later determined the group was hunting on private property when one of their dogs fell into the cistern, a structure similar to a well that is used to store water. One of the group members then jumped into the cistern, possibly in an attempt to rescue the dog, authorities said.

According to the sheriff's office, the other two people also jumped into the cistern, possibly to rescue the first person, while a fourth person returned to their truck to call 911.

Authorities said the water level was "far below" the ground-level opening to the cistern. The structure also contained hydrogen sulfite gas, WTSP reported.

"Because of the gas in the hole, we think — and we're speculating here, we'll let the autopsy bear this out. But we're speculating that the gas overcame them and they were not able to maintain any kind of buoyancy on top of the water, and therefore, they sank underneath the water," Sheriff Maurice Cook said, according to a WTSP report.

Authorities said the fumes, the stagnant water, and the instability of the cistern hampered recovery efforts and prevented first responders from immediately climbing into the structure. Authorities ventilated the cistern to remove the gas and also drained the water before deploying a small drone to check the cistern's structural integrity.

Once the structure was deemed safe to enter, authorities lowered an investigator into the cistern, where he retrieved the bodies of the three victims and their dog.

The victims were later identified as 37-year-old Delvys Garcia, 26-year-old Denise Martinez and 45-year-old Noel Vigil-Benitez.

The official causes of death are pending autopsy results, authorities said.