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Chase Childers, a 38-year-old former baseball player and police officer from Georgia, tragically drowned after heroically saving five people from a rip current at a beach in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. On Sunday (July 13), around 4:45 p.m., the Pawleys Island Police Department received a distress call about multiple swimmers in trouble. Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered that one person was missing. A search was initiated, and at approximately 6:15 p.m., the body of Chase Childers was found.
According to the police, Childers and another individual entered the water to assist a family of five caught in the rip current. While he successfully helped save the family, Childers was unable to escape the current himself. The police described his actions as a "heroic act," noting that he paid the "highest sacrifice with his life in front of his three children and wife."
Childers, who would have turned 39 next month, leaves behind his wife and three children. His family expressed their devastation, stating that the loss feels "surreal, incredibly hard to grasp and profoundly unfair." They remember him as a hero who selflessly gave his life to save others.