Missing swimmer’s body recovered on SPI

South Padre Island Police Department officers and Coast Guard agents congregate at Public Beach Access #21 after 26-year-old ChristDeshaun Reddix was reported missing. Photo By Gaige Davila.

 

By Gaige Davila
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com

A body has been recovered on South Padre Island, after a person went missing after swimming with two others at a public beach access.

ChristDeshaun Reddix, 26, from Austin, was found dead 2.5 miles north of Cameron County Beach Access 6 at around 11:00 a.m., South Padre Island Public Information Officer Nikki Soto confirmed to the PRESS. 

Phillip Bullard, who was visiting the Island from Dallas, Texas, was one of several people who discovered the body during an early morning horseback riding trip on the beach.

“I thought somebody was just lounging in the water,” Bullard told the PRESS in an email. “God, I never want to see that again.”

Staff at South Padre Island Adventure Park, who were leading the horseback riding, led the group away and returned to the park through a different route. There was no cell phone service that far out on the beach, Bullard said, so staff had to radio their discovery of Reddix’s body to the park. First responders came soon after.

“We all went back eerily quiet and everyone dispersed and went their separate ways,” Bullard said, referring to their return to the park. Bullard noted that several children were in the group,

Soto told the PRESS that at around 3:12 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, three people were swimming near Public Beach Access #21, Good Hope, when one of the swimmers was lost. 

Of the other two simmers, one, a 45-year-old man, was transferred to Valley Regional Medical Center, and the other was removed from the scene, Soto said. 

South Padre Island Police Department, South Padre Island Lifeguards, Cameron County Lifeguards, and Coast Guard branches from South Padre Island and Corpus Christi responded to the scene. A Coast Guard helicopter and plane flew back and forth from each end of the beach numerous times looking for the swimmer. 

On scene, beachgoers watched as first responders made phone calls and scanned the beach. Lifeguards, at around 6:30 p.m., returned without any sight of the person. 

Editor’s note: This story will be updated as more information becomes available.  

Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/07/30/missing-swimmers-body-recovered-on-spi/

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