Marvell Edmondson and Jauwan Holmes from Virginia State University died in the Appomattox River from a hazing ritual. INSIDE EDITION reports from where this senseless tragedy took place.
A desperate search in the middle of the night for two college students, lost in a raging river and the way they died is sending shock waves across every campus in America.
What were these two 19-year-old's doing, trying to cross Virginia's roaring Appomattox River on foot?
Authorities say they were part of a team of seven students taking part in a hazing ritual for a social club known as Men Of Honor. Inside Edition’s Les Trent went to the very spot it happened.
Trent said "The seven men went in downriver from a dam, so the rapids are even more unforgiving."
This river can be very turbulent. Earlier this year, it flooded its banks.
Divers from the Chesterfield County scuba rescue squad in Virginia showed us how tough it can be to try and cross this river on foot. They had trouble keeping their balance in the swift, running, murky water.
Imagine trying to keep your footing on the rocky, uneven, river bottom.
Marvell Edmondson and Jauwan Holmes, were both freshmen at Virginia State University, which has no affiliation with the social club, Men of Honor.
Holmes' mother said, "We still cry, we still hold onto each other, we still wonder why.”
Holmes' parents can't make sense of the death defying ritual that took their son's life.
And after a tearful farewell to the other drowning victim, his grieving parents still have trouble understand how their beloved son could have died taking part in a risky hazing ritual his grieving mom had just one question about that same ritual.
Edmondson mother said, "Never once, did I want too believe that he was gone."
