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The man swam for about an hour, according to authorities. Then, at about 5:20 p.m., a bystander ran up to the Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy on duty at the park that day. The swimmer was in the river, calling for help. He had gone underwater.

The deputy jumped in the water and directed people to form a human chain in case the river sent the swimmer downstream. But it didn't.听

The man was caught in a notorious whirlpool, formed by a particularly hazardous combination of a fast current, a set of bluffs and the remnants of a dam. The river, squeezed between the dam and the bluffs here, sends the whirlpool spinning over a deep hole.

The effect: It can grab swimmers from below, like a giant invisible hand. It pulls them down, twisting as it goes.

"As the upper half of your body tries to swim, your lower half feels like it is in a washing machine, getting turned around and around by an agitator,鈥� said High Ridge Fire Captain Jonathan Bruns, who听has experienced the vortex during rescue efforts. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very deceptive. You wouldn鈥檛 know it鈥檚 there.鈥�

Two minutes after the deputy was notified that day, June 28, a High Ridge fire crew arrived and began to search. Twelve minutes after that, the feet of a fire captain searching the whirlpool touched the man's head, deep underwater, his body still spinning in the eddy.

The man, Rogelio Batzoc, died six hours later.

His death was part of a pattern at the park. In the five years before 2016, one person drowned here. Then, in 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers piled 4,700 tons of rock onto two-thirds of the old dam that crossed the river at Rockford Park. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the dam was failing and needed an emergency fix.

In the nine years since, six people have drowned, moving it up in the rank of Missouri rivers with the highest numbers of drownings.

And the number of Rockford Park drownings, authorities say, would be much higher if it weren't for the rescues performed by fire crews 鈥� and other park-goers who flock here on hot summer days.

Less than two weeks before Batzoc died, a father and son nearly drowned. The day after Batzoc died, the fire department again responded after a man got caught and was saved by bystanders.

Interviews with scientists, first-responders and parkgoers show that the rock dumped on the dam constricted the river, sped up the flow and created the dangerous eddy. At least the three most recent victims were all found there, rescuers and state drowning reports say.

The Army Corps did not comment about the increase in drownings. It said considerations for swimmer safety were never part of the design process to prevent the dam from failing.

鈥淎ny potential public safety assessment or projects are outside of USACE鈥檚 authority,鈥� the corps said in an email to the Post-Dispatch.

Andrew Earles, a licensed engineer in Missouri and a vice president at Denver-based听Wright Water Engineers, was surprised by the Corps' response.

鈥淚t's shocking to me that they said that,鈥� Earles said. 鈥淎s a licensed engineer, your first duty is to protect public safety and welfare.鈥澨�

鈥淭hey should鈥檝e had a river engineer evaluate what they can do to disrupt the formation of that eddy that鈥檚 forming now,鈥� he added.

In nearly a decade since the work was done, no agency followed up to identify or lessen the hazards created by the project.

Jefferson County, the state Department of Natural Resources, the state Health Department, the state Water Patrol, the EPA and the Army Corps all said no agency does that.听

High Ridge Fire Protection District Chief John Barton is now calling for change.

鈥淚t's difficult with nobody stepping forward,鈥� he said.听

A crumbling dam

At first glance, the 8-acre Rockford Park, located 12 miles southwest of Fenton, just off State Road W, is the perfect mix of rustic lagoon and river waterpark. A gristmill dam built in the 1890s creates two deep pools, one upstream and one downstream from the dam. Bluffs overlook it all.

Two parking lots just steps from the beach can hold about 75 cars.

Locals have been swimming here for generations; the park was a summer resort back in the 1950s.

鈥淭he place is near and dear to me,鈥� said Luke Prewitt, 41, from Hillsboro, who has been going to the park for decades.

The original structure was a "low-head" dam, often peeking out of the water just a few feet.

Low-head dams are often called "drowning machines." Water plunges over the ledge and then churns in an ever-rolling current that traps people and animals underwater against the dam, especially when the water levels on either side are similar.

Before 2016, the drowning machine effect sometimes did endanger people at Rockford Park, according to the fire district. But as the dam crumbled, currents moved through holes underwater, and the effect was often absent.

The dam then was so fun, parkgoers used it as a waterslide.

鈥淚鈥檇 slide down, hit the water, drop a couple feet under, and a very strong current would push me an incredible distance down river,鈥� Prewitt said.听鈥淚 would travel probably 30 feet in just a few seconds. All while staying in the fetal position.听There wasn鈥檛 a moment I was scared for my life.鈥�

But by 2015, the dam was on the verge of collapse, the EPA said, and had to be fixed. It held back centuries of lead-mining pollution that the river accrued over 135 miles, from its start at the south end of Council Bluff Lake in the Mark Twain National Forest,听before emptying into the Meramec River.

The contaminated sediment,听the EPA said in a 2015 memo, was 鈥渁n imminent and substantial endangerment to the environment due to the toxicity of lead to downstream endangered species mussel beds.鈥�

And the memo included an illustration of what the fix could look like 鈥� a "rock riffle," a series of steps made from small rocks, spanning the width of the river and gently sloping downstream.

Each step would support the movement of fish, people and kayaks. The structures have been shown to dramatically reduce drownings.听

But it was never built.

The Army Corps said last month听the rock riffle design was just a generalized plan, not meant to be specific to the site.

A changed river

Instead, the Army Corps trucked in 4,700 tons of rock and piled it on top of the dam and along its downstream side. The project cost more than $427,000.

But the rock, called riprap, was only installed about two-thirds of the way across. That left a gap, squeezing much of the Big River's flow between the rock and the bluffs.

The EPA and Army Corps provided different reasons for the gap. The EPA said the gap allowed for pressure relief behind the dam. The Corps said that section of the dam, without the riprap, was already stabilized.

Either way, that created a problem, said Luther听Aadland, a retired Minnesota Department of Natural Resources potamologist 鈥� a scientist who studies rivers.

鈥淭here鈥檚 too much flow going through a narrow gap,鈥� he said, based on images of the present-day structure.

Moreover, said听Robb Jacobson, a University of Missouri potamologist, greater water velocity means stronger eddies.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a predictably dangerous place,鈥� he said.

Prewitt, the Hillsboro resident, said the swimming experience changed both upstream and downstream of the dam. Before 2016, jumping from the bluffs was safer.

鈥淲e would jump from 10 feet high off the bluffs into 10 feet of water, all the time, just upstream of the dam,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow if you do that, no matter how well you swim, the current will out muscle you.鈥�

鈥淣ow,鈥� he added, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a death wish.鈥�

Downstream of the dam, Prewitt used to float on an inner tube. He tried it once after the fix.

鈥淚t flipped me right over, threw me out of the tube,鈥� he said. 鈥淟uckily I had a tight grip on the handle of the tube, because I could feel forces trying to suck me down. The current yanked on me, pulled me, it got my head underwater. I鈥檓 never doing that again. I鈥檓 never letting my kids do it.鈥�

Fire district officials report multiple rescues each year. Last year alone, the district conducted six.

And visitors tell story after story of their own.

Tony Glunt, 19, is a diesel mechanic from House Springs who frequents the park with his friends.

One day, one of them started to struggle in the water.

鈥淓verybody was screaming, 鈥楬e鈥檚 drowning,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淗e almost drowned me in the process of saving him. Afterwards he was crying.鈥�

The new hazards

Almost two dozen parkgoers told the Post-Dispatch about the risks now at the dam.

The rocks themselves are a problem, said George Beronja, 29, from McBride, about an hour south of the park, who frequently walks the dam while fishing.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge amount of rocks and they get slippery and are difficult to walk on,鈥� Beronja said. 鈥淎nd they are full of snakes.鈥�

In 2023, Andres Vazquez Gutierrez, 43, was last seen walking on the rocks before his body was found in the river.听

The rapids can sweep people away. They also gather branches, logs and rocks, which can knock people over.

鈥淥nce, three of us tried to cross the rapids to the bluffs, but we all three started going down. A stranger jumped in and saved us. My legs were all cut up from the debris,鈥� said Danyelle Baugus, 20, from Ballwin.

It鈥檚 not just the force of the rapids. The bubbles in the water rushing through the channel add another dimension of danger.

Bubbly water is harder to stay afloat in. The aeration lessens buoyant force, which pushes a body upwards in the water. 鈥淓ven if there鈥檚 a slight change in buoyant force, that can be surprising to people and cause them to panic,鈥� said Jacobson, the University of Missouri potamologist.

Since the rapids are against the rock wall of the bluffs, if swimmers make it across the rapids, there鈥檚 no place to rest.

In 2017, 14-year-old Devon Cotton died trying to cross the choppy current. In his last moments, he grasped a weed growing out of the bluffs, but the plant lost its grip on the rock and sank into the river with him.

And the rapids can wash people into the eddies.

In 2023, Hamsa Mohamed, 41, jumped off the bluffs into the river and disappeared. Last year, Guadalupe Lopez, 33, at the beach for lunch, got hot and went swimming. And in June, Botzoc went under.

All three of their bodies were found in the eddy.

The size and strength of the eddies can change as the river rises and falls, Jacobson warns, and as the river bed adds and subtracts debris and sediment.

One weekend someone may be able to swim across the eddy.

The next, they may get caught in its grip.

鈥業t's not my property鈥�

County officials have tried to make Rockford Park safer.

They installed signs tell people swimming is not recommended. They removed the word "beach" from the name of the park. They've added sheriff patrols and banned alcohol and marijuana use. They even approved a gate at the park's entrance, to close the beach at night, though it hasn't yet been built.

But they haven't banned swimming. The Jefferson County Council voted against a proposal last year.

Even as drownings increased at the site, the Army Corps never checked to see how the modified water flow might be impacting swimmers, and whether anything could be done about it.

Moreover, the Corps said no agency is tasked with analyzing drowning patterns and improving swimmer safety.

鈥淯SACE is not aware of such an entity,鈥� said Romanda Walker, a public affairs specialist at the Army Corps' 果酱视频 office.

The Jefferson County Department of Parks and the state health department, water patrol and Department of Natural Resources all said the same.

Any reevaluations of the 2016 project, Walker said, would have to be requested from a governing body such as the county.

Timothy Pigg, Jefferson County parks director, said parks officials are not hydrologists who would have even known to request a reevaluation.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not our expertise,鈥� Pigg said. 鈥淚t's not my property. It's not my dam.鈥�

And Barton, the High Ridge fire chief, said he is often left out of the loop. In 2018, when the Army Corps conducted a survey of the bottom of the river, identifying the location of the hole under the killer eddy, it did not share its findings with the fire district.

In July 2025, when the EPA released an engineering evaluation for plans that include dredging the Big River the fire district was caught off guard again, he said.

The fire district knows where it has performed rescues, where it has found bodies, and how that has impacted the community, Barton said.

鈥淲e always want to have a seat at the table,鈥� he said.

But changes are coming.

In June, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources released a draft habitat restoration plan for the Big River.

Ten years in the making, the project is poised to finally alter the structure at Rockford Park, though the timeline is unclear and the specifics have not been established.

It's not fast enough for Barton.听Deadly public safety problems shouldn鈥檛 have to wait for wildlife projects to be funded, he said.

An agency should be 鈥渨orking actively and aggressively,鈥� he said, to learn from drowning incidents and identify preventable swimming hazards 鈥� much as state agencies monitor traffic crashes so they can make roadways safer.

One morning last month, on his way out of Rockford Park after a rescue training drill, Barton said that until such action is taken, 鈥渙ur message is don鈥檛 get in the water.鈥�

As he drove away, 32-year-old Britney Boston from Arnold arrived for a day of swimming with her friend. Boston unfurled a beach towel at the edge of the water, unpacked grapes and pineapple, and talked about the possibility of seeing snapping turtles, fish and a Great Blue Heron she named Susan.

Boston does not support banning swimming at the park. But she also knows it's dangerous.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a big old current out there,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat will suck you in.鈥�