While the search goes on for the missing guy, the distraught wife of a man who was carried out to sea has returned to the beach where he originally vanished.
Before going missing on Friday afternoon, devoted family guy Dan Cojocea saved two of his own children and the little girl of his companion.
At Mary Ellis Beach, which is close to Port Lincoln, Cojocea had been swimming with his two sons and Inika, the daughter of Riaan Grobler.
“My absolute hero” was how Grobler described him.
“He somehow got the kids out, keep telling them keep swimming, keep swimming,” he continued.
“He disappeared, that was it.”
The holidaying family was from a small South Australian town called Roxby Downs, and they had been to the area previously.
However, when they got caught in a rip, their time together took a fatal turn.
Inika can still clearly recall Cojocea pushing her into the deeper water.
“He grabbed me by the arm, I tried to hold onto his shoulder, a big wave came and he pushed me,” she recalled.
Being a weak swimmer, Grobler feels devastated that he was unable to achieve more.
Together with Cojocea’s wife, Alina, and their two teenage daughters, he observed everything from the shore.
The kids received treatment for mild injuries and hypothermia before being released from the hospital Friday night.
The third day of the search is today.
Emergency services have not concentrated on the water itself, but rather on the beach.
Cojocea is one of thirteen siblings, many of whom have come to assist with the search from all around the state and nation.
They claim to be clinging to optimism, but they also worry about having to go back home without him.
Grobler wrote on the internet, “My heart is shattered.”
“You deserve to be commended. My idol. You were able to save the children, but not yourself.”
