Parents grieving, trying to get children's remains to Guatemala after drowning in San Jacinto River

CROSBY, Texas (KTRK) -- For the first time, a grieving family is speaking out about what happened and the tragic loss they're facing after two children died in the San Jacinto County River over the weekend.

They're from Guatemala and are trying to figure out arrangements to send the children's remains there as their final resting place.

Jeffrey, 6, and Ashlyn Guzman Miranda, 12, were two young kids enjoying a hot summer's day who never made it out of the water. The kids were enjoying the water slides with their dad and family at San Jacinto River near Xtreme Off Road Park on Saturday evening,

When it was time to go, their dad says he saw his kids on the shoreline getting out. He says he turned around briefly to pack up the things, and his children disappeared. In his mind, he thought someone had taken them and started looking for them everywhere.

Arecely Menendez, an eyewitness that evening, says the land was less than three yards from where the children were. She didn't know the Guzman family before this tragic moment.

The children's father, Eder Guzman, says it all happened in a matter of minutes. He never imagined the children getting back into the water and were ultimately found hours later dead after drowning.

Speaking in Spanish, Guzman told ABC13 his heart was pounding and felt numb at the news of what had happened. The children's mother, Frisdy Miranda, got the life-altering call on Saturday night while she was at a church retreat.

Miranda says she feels an emptiness and pain in her heart, a feeling she doesn't wish on anyone. She says her children loved playing outside and also really loved school. They called them star students.

Ashlyn and Jeffrey's mom says life is borrowed, and she says one day we're here, and unfortunately, the next we may not be.

A GoFundMe was created to help raise money and get the proper paperwork through the Guatemalan consulate to have their children's remains laid to rest in their native land.

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