A mother and her young daughter have died after being swept away by flood waters in Oklahoma.
“Just after 5 p.m. today, a boat crew from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol located the body of the 7 year old girl who was swept away in the flood waters along with her mother yesterday near Leonard,” the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) said in a statement to Fox 23 on Monday, April 21.
“She has been identified [as] Rosa Faraji of Broken Arrow. This concludes the search along the Arkansas River. TCSO would like to thank all the agencies who played a role in the search,” the sheriff’s office said.
According to the news station, Rosa was traveling in a vehicle with her 10-year-old sister and their mother and father on Sunday, April 20 when their car became stranded in water.
The father and the older daughter were able to jump on a vehicle and reach safety/higher ground, police said.
The wife was identified as 46-year-old Leila Seyed Faraji, the Bixby Fire Department said.
Their family had been traveling to visit friends in the area when they took a wrong turn and ended up on a flooded bridge over a creek, the outlet said, citing the TCSO.
Leonard is an unincorporated community in the southeastern corner of Tulsa County. In 2020, the U.S. Census said the population was 262, per KOCO.
“They thought they could make it through, but unfortunately the vehicle was overtaken by water. It was a father and a mother and two daughters,” Casey Roebuck, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told Fox 23.
Roebuck added that the search and rescue efforts brought out hundreds of concerned community members and agencies.
“We had the dogs from Oklahoma Task Force 1, we had drones. Yesterday, TPD had their helicopters up. We had people on foot along the river banks. We had side by sides with crews in them and we’ve had multiple boats in the water since yesterday,” she said.
Faraji’s body was recovered Monday morning at approximately 9 a.m., with her daughter’s body being found later in the day.
Prior to the heartbreaking discovery, family friend Ahmad Moradi expressed his grief while sharing that he planned to stay near the creek until the little girl was found.
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“She was one of my best students, very well-mannered, enthusiastic, she was a joy,” he told Fox 23 of Faraji.
He added that they were “really blessed” to have help from all of the organizations who were “going above and beyond” to find Rosa after recovering her mother’s body.
“I’m hoping to find her alive, but chances sounds like it’s very slim,” Moradi said. “But I’m hoping they will find her soon.”
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