Dad accidentally drowned in Brays Bayou while in town for baby's transplant, medical examiner says
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A missing father from Oklahoma accidentally drowned in Brays Bayou, the medical examiner confirmed on Monday.
The video above is from a previous report.
On Nov. 15, Texas EquuSearch crews discovered 28-year-old Ridge Cole's body near MacGregor Park while coordinating with homicide detectives for a joint search.
Within 10 minutes, EquuSearch members and volunteers found a body 3.5 miles from where authorities believed Cole fell while walking along Brays Bayou after finding some of his belongings.
"He somehow slipped into the bayou. It's a terrible vertical ledge, and we found personal effects on the bank where he had been sitting, and it really pointed to that he had entered the water," Mark Edwards, with Texas EquuSearch, said in a previous report.
During the initial discovery, investigators did not confirm the body found was Cole, but on Nov. 18, the medical examiner confirmed it belonged to the missing father.
On Monday, the medical examiner reported Cole's cause of death as an accidental drowning.
Cole and his family arrived in Houston about three months ago as his 13-month-old baby boy was set to undergo a liver transplant. Cole, his mother, wife, and son stayed at the Ronald McDonald House Charities. He was last seen on Nov. 11, in the 1900 block of Holcombe Boulevard in the Texas Medical Center, according to Texas EquuSearch.
