Massapequa family seeks help finding body of newly engaged man who drowned
The newly engaged couple were kayaking when their kayak filled with water.
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A Massapequa family is seeking help to find a man who believed to have drowned while kayaking.
Travis Valenti, 37, of Massapequa, proposed to his girlfriend Marlene last Wednesday during a vacation to Washington State. Two days later, the newly engaged couple were kayaking when Valenti’s brother, Austin Valenti, says the kayak filled with water.
“It started out as the best trip of their lives and took just a tragic turn that nobody could really see coming,” Austin Valenti says.
Austin Valenti says his brother was able to push his fiancé to safety before he drowned.
“Travis get her the extra little push that she needed to get safe, and they still haven’t found him since Friday at 2 or 3 p.m.,” Austin Valenti says.
Now, the family needs financial assistance to help find the body and bring it back to Long Island.
“He can light up a room and make anybody laugh,” says Austin Valenti. “He was just everybody’s favorite guy, including Marlene’s and all of ours, they were just a beautiful couple, and they had this beautiful life planned out and it just gets cut so short out of nowhere.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe so they can assemble divers and boaters to help find the body.
News 12 reached out to a fire chief in Washington State, who says the Olympic National Park is the lead agency conducting the search. News 12 also reached out to them and have not heard back.
