The nightmare began when Christopher Snow and his daughter Alexis failed to return from a jet ski excursion.
Rescuers in Florida followed the screams of a 13-year-old girl as they tried to locate a father and daughter in alligator-infested waters near Tampa.
The nightmare began when Christopher Snow and his daughter Alexis failed to return from a jet ski excursion.
Snow’s girlfriend, Carolyn Joyce, eventually went to see where the two were around 8 p.m., according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
When she could not find them, she alerted Deputy Kevin Reich, who was on duty at Baker Creek Park.
In a lifesaving stroke-of-luck, a good Samaritan boater and his family were arriving back at the dock at the same time and offered to take the deputy out on their boat to look for the pair.
Rich then began to search for the pair in Lake Thonotosassa, which has a surface rea of over 900 acres.
The pitch-black conditions further complicated the rescue mission, but after 40 minutes, the deputy could hear Alexis' screams.
Rich directed his flashlight in the direction of the screams and was finally able to locate the father and daughter, who by that point had been treading water for an hour.
Alexis tells the deputy that the jet ski the two had been using sank, leaving them abandoned and helpless in the pond just as night began to fall.
The exhausted but grateful pair were then pulled onto the boat.
“The swift response of our deputy and the assistance provided by the community played a crucial role in the successful rescue of Christopher and Alexis Snow,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement.
Sheriff Chronister also said that the pair might not have survived had they not been wearing life vests. Dad himself agreed, and said the rescue served as a great reminder to always wear a life vest.
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