“Teananga nearly reached the other side, but suddenly, he was stuck in a whirlpool,” Moote said.
“The current was pretty strong ... Teananga was going down, going up, and struggling to come up.”
Moote was told by his friends it looked like “someone pulled his leg from underwater” and when he resurfaced from underwater the first time, he shouted, “Help, help me”.
The second time, “he was just gone and never came up”.
“This was the last time they saw his face,” he said.
Tiotia’s friend on the other side was only about “six feet away” from Tiotia, so he tried to reach him.
However, the water was “too strong”.
“He started going down too and decided to come back because it’s too late,” Moote said.
“He didn’t want to die too, so he tried to save himself.
“I put my boat in the water, and I’m calling his name. All my tears [were] coming down ... I didn’t know [if] I’m ever going to find him,” Moote said.
The third day, while on the river doing his daily search, he got the call from his wife that Tiotia had been found, and the family needed to identify the body.
“[His] face looked different ... he was still the same, just some scratches and swelling, but he changed a little bit,” Moote said.
“I was pretty sad. I know he’s gone forever, but I still don’t believe that.”
The passing of Tiotia has been hard on the family, especially for his brother, who was present on the day of the incident and tried to save him.
Moote said you can see on his face that he’s “not like before”.
“They’ve always shared one room, they go out together, they go shopping together, and they go with their friends together. It’s really sad for him.”
Tiotia was a “very respectful kid”.
“I always admired him because he really respected my wife. When she growled him, he always listened,” Moote said.
“I really miss him.”
Teananga Tiotia will be laid to rest on Monday.
The incident
Police were called to the river near Graham Island, in Hamilton, about 3.30pm on Saturday, after a report of a struggling swimmer being swept downstream.
