[1]Christopher Puentes-Garay pictured in a recent photo at school. / Courtesy photo
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Maria Puentes is hoping to take her son home.
Home to Los Angeles to be buried.
Christopher Puentes-Garay, a 16-year-old Rochester High School student, died unexpectedly while swimming Tuesday afternoon in the Chehalis River with one of his brothers, his cousin and another friend.
The single mother of four moved her family to Rochester just last summer, according to her sister Tracy Yanez.
“She moved her boys out of Los Angeles for a safer place to live,” Yanez said.
Puentes-Garay vanished under the water shortly after he jumped in to catch up to his cousin and her friend, according to authorities.
It happened on the 12,600 block of Independence Road, about two miles west of the bridge at Michigan Hill Road near Rochester.
Searchers found his body the following day, at the bottom of the river less than 50 yards from where he was last seen.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said an autopsy today confirmed he drowned, but he didn’t have a certain explanation as to why.
It could have been the current, or it could have been the water was very cold, according to Warnock.
“He was in apparent good health,” Warnock said. “For he, his friends and his family, it was just a normal day.”
Up until he drowned.
One thing that can happen, is when a person’s body temperature is warm and they jump into cold water, their diaphragm can constrict and make it difficult to breathe, according to the coroner.
Puentes-Garay was the oldest of four children, a boy who was the “man of the house” and would make cakes for his mother, Yanez said.
He will also leave behind five cousins mourning in Rochester.
“My 3-year-old today, said “Mom, now Chris can sit on the moon’,” Yanez said. “She understands.”
Students at Rochester High School are making T-shirts in his memory.
Maria Puentes’ managers have coordinated fundraising so she can take her son back to Highland Park, where his grandmother is, according to Yanez.
Donations can be made at Twin Star Credit Union, where a special account has been set up, she said.
A car wash is set for tomorrow at Bailey’s IGA at 10333 U.S. Highway 12 in Rochester, to start at about 10 a.m.
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For background, read “Search resumes for teen lost in Chehalis River” from Wednesday May 16, 2012, here [2]