"It was just a freak wave, . . ."

KTVZ.com of Oregon reported this tragic news last night with this rather non descriptive title: "Bend residents help in 'sneaker wave' rescue." Here's what happened:

A mother says she, her 6-year-old son and a newly married couple were swept from a coastal rock near Coos Bay, when they fell victim to a sneaker wave.

"We were all four there," Angela Leone said. "It was just a freak wave, we were just looking at the tide pools and stuff."

Three Bend residents were vacationing in the Coos Bay area and were standing near that rock in Shore Acres Park.

They say they heard the wave hit and ran to help the strangers being pulled into the ocean.

"The strength of the wave, they were only in knee deep water," Bryce Robertson said Wednesday.

Leone says she tried to hold onto her son but couldn't.

Two of the Bend residents reached in, to pull her out.

Leone says her sister, Robin Tyler, was pushed out of the water by her new husband, 39-year-old Roy Tyler. Leone now calls him a hero.

"Roy had pushed Robin where she could grab onto safety and had grabbed onto Craig," she said.

Robertson said the wave "pulled them, the man and the boy, it just pulled them back out to sea."

Sadly the little's body was later spotted on the other side of the cove. After CPR he was stabilized for a while, unfortunately according to his mother he "died three hours later as he was en route to a Portland children's hospital. " After hours of unsuccessful searching, the search for Roy Tyler's body was called off.

Another tragic case fell on a beautiful rocky shore. The wave that the mother described as "just a freak wave" is likely to be the kind of Sarah freaque wave we have discussed on this blog before. Our heartfelt sympathy goes to the mother who lost her son and her sister who lost her newly married husband. May God's grace and blessing help them endure this human tragedy.