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An Arkansas police officer drowned after entering a river to save his fiancée just hours after proposing to her, according to her mother.
Fred Marsh, 24, of the Rogers Police Department, entered Missouri’s Elk River on Saturday to help another swimmer and did not resurface, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. His fiancée’s mother identified that swimmer as her daughter. Marsh was recovered and pronounced dead Sunday after asking his fiancée, Hailey, to marry him Saturday morning.
“They had been together for three beautiful years, and they had a very beautiful, loving relationship,” Sheryl Padgett told KHBS. “Even though legally he was not my son-in-law, he will forever be my son.”
The pair, who had been together for three years, were out canoeing with another couple on the river near Noel, Missouri, when Hailey entered the water and began struggling against the current while trying to return to the boat.
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Marsh and a fellow Rogers police officer who was with them then jumped into the water to help her, Padgett said. They were able to move her to safety, but Marsh became distressed and exhausted, went underwater and never resurfaced, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
“He saw the love of his life in distress, and he was going to help his friend and do what a good human would do,” Padgett said. “He gave his life helping someone else.”
Padgett said Marsh was loving, hardworking and guided by his Christian faith, emphasizing that he never hesitated when someone needed help.
“There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for anyone,” Padgett said. “You didn’t have to tell him. You didn’t have to beg him. He just was willing and would jump in there and do whatever it took to help someone.”
Padgett said she had lost her only son in a fatal accident four years earlier. She began calling Marsh her son soon after he started dating her daughter.
“We instantly made a connection and a bond,” she said. “I called him son, and he called me mama.”
A motorcade escorted Marsh’s body through Northwest Arkansas on Monday as people lined up along the route to honor him. Padgett said the response from law enforcement and the community showed the impact Marsh had made on many others.
“They made it very clear that Fred was not just their family, but so was my daughter, my family and, even more importantly, Fred’s family,” Padgett said.
Marsh was in his first year with the Rogers Police Department. He graduated from the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy in April and only recently started working as an officer.
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A GoFundMe created for Hailey by her sister to cover her lease, bills and other unforeseen expenses has raised nearly $2,000 as of Thursday morning.
“Fred was an upstanding young man- Son, Fiancée, Officer, Brother, Friend, and more to all. We are devastated and will miss him dearly,” the fundraiser reads.
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Funeral arrangements are being handled by Marsh’s family, and Padgett said the family expects officers, former classmates, childhood friends and others from across the state to attend.
“Let’s do something in Fred’s honor,” Padgett said. “Be kind to your fellow man. When Fred loved, he loved with everything he had, and he loved well.”