KASARGOD: A married couple and their 16-year-old nephew drowned in the Payaswini river at Kundamkuzhy in Bedadka gram panchayat on Monday.
The deceased have been identified as Nidhin Rao (35), his wife Deeksha (30), and Rao's brother Kishore Kumar's son Maneesh (16) of Kundamkuzhy.
Nidhin, who worked in Kuwait, came home for vacation one month ago. Monday afternoon, nine members of the family went to Chotta, a nature preserve along the rocky Payaswini near Thonikadav and 2km from their house, for an excursion.
Deeksha was standing on a rock in the middle of the river when she slipped and started drowning, said Bedadka sub-inspector Gangadharan M.
"Deeksha did not know swimming and Nidhin jumped in to save her but he also started drowning," said the officer.
Seeing his uncle and aunt drowning, Maneesh, a class X student of Government Higher Secondary School in Kundamkuzhi, also jumped in. He did not even know how to swim, said the sub-inspector.
By then, Ramananda, a relative and ace swimmer, dived and tried to pull out Maneesh by the hair. "He was almost successful, but Deeksha and Nidhin caught Maneesh's leg in their attempt to save themselves," he said.
Three persons were one too many for Ramananda to pull out and he too started sinking. "So he had to let go and come up," said the officer.
The relatives then called the Fire and Rescue personnel, and together with the residents launched a search for the missing persons. Around 6 pm, the fire and rescue personnel fished out the three bodies.
Police said the bodies were kept at the General Hospital in Kasaragod for postmortem.
The funeral will be held on Tuesday.