They weren’t both swimmers, but Dragi couldn’t help but jump after his wife.

Missing, Photo: Rajko Ristic / Hello

The body of Mirjana Mladenović (64), who drowned in Velika Morava in Saraorci near Smederevo on Friday, was found yesterday, and Gendarmerie divers continue to search for her husband Drago (64). The gendarmerie divers look for him downstream from the place where the spouses disappeared. The tragedy occurred when a woman fell into the river for the first time and began to drown, and then her husband jumped after her, trying to save her life. These are farmers from this place who probably started doing business on your property.

The bodies of the drowned were seen floating on the surface of the river on Friday, about 500 meters downstream from where their tractor was left by the river. However, despite the all-day search, their bodies were not pulled out of the water until Saturday.

During the search, the police found Mirjana’s body in the river bed, while her husband’s body was not there at the time. So the search continued, and the aggravating factor for the Gendarmerie divers is the eddies that were created by extracting gravel and sand.

– His body was found a few kilometers from the place of drowning and he was tied to a branch. We suspect that Mirjana was the first to fall into the water while trying to uproot the wood. To save her, Dragi jumped into the river after her. It is assumed that they fell into a whirlpool and that the current of the river drove them away. During the investigation, her tractor was found on the shore, and yesterday locals reported that they believed they saw bodies floating in the river. So a plan was made and it was decided to go searching from the bottom up. While the divers are recording the eddies, the police are inspecting the river bed because they suspect the bodies may not have been attached to a tree, our source said.

The locals of Saraorac hope that the divers will soon find Drago’s body, that the children will at least bury them as they deserved.

– They were both non-swimmers. But how much they were tied to each other is also shown by the fact that Dragi, from what we have heard, jumped to save his wife, even though he did not know how to swim and was therefore aware that there was a good chance that he could swim. drown, say the locals of Saraoran.

They don’t know if Mira went into the water to cool down a bit, not knowing what could happen to her.

– Some separations are constantly working here, they are extracting sand and gravel. Eddies form in these recesses. Morava is a strange river. In some parts you can cross it, and somewhere it is four or five meters deep and anything can happen. However, there have been no tragedies in recent years, we do not remember that someone from the town almost drowned. The last case of drowning was a long time ago, and then a man who was an extraordinary swimmer drowned, but allegedly drank a little more and entered the water, residents of this town near Smederevo say.

Missing, Photo: Rajko Ristic / Hello

However, they do not believe that Mira and Dragi went to cut wood or do anything on the property on Friday afternoon.

– She was the Great Lady. A big holiday, a red letter and then nothing is done. Not even in the field. They probably went to rest a bit, according to our interlocutors.

Both Mira and Dragi were retired. He was a merchant throughout his working life, working in shops in Saraorci and Lugavčina, while Dragi worked at “Lasta” in Smederevo.

They have three sons, two daughters and a son, and they all started families.

– At least they took the children to the road – the citizens of the state of Saraor.

17 people drowned

Just two days before the tragedy in Morava, the Serbian police announced that from April 30 this year until then, 17 people lost their lives by drowning in rivers or lakes, and among them were the youngest.