15 June 2023 , 20:42
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A man heroically pushed his fiancée to safety while kayaking before vanishing into the waters, believed drowned - just two days after their engagement.
37-year-old Travis Valenti, from Massapequa, Long Island, was on "the best trip of their lives" kayaking with fiancée Marlene on Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park, in Washington state.
He was last seen at around 2.10pm local time on June 9 when his kayak overturned.
Marlene tried to help him out of the frigid water, but was forced to swim to shore when her own kayak tipped. Travis' kayak had started taking on water, and though he tried to keep paddling, he ultimately had to abandon it.
Travis' brother Austin said he had pushed his bride-to-be to safety before he went missing.
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Speaking to News12 Long Island, he said: "It started out as the best trip of their lives and took just a tragic turn that nobody could really see coming.
Travis heroically pushed Marlene to safety which allowed her to swim back to shore (Travis Valenti/Facebook)"Travis gave [Marlene] the extra little push that she needed to get safe, and they still haven't found him since Friday at 2 or 3pm."
The National Park Service said neither one of the couple were wearing life jackets at the time. Travis was about a quarter of a mile offshore at a depth of 400 to 500 feet when the incident happened.
Workers at the nearby Log Cabin Resort quickly got a motorised vessel into the water, and headed out to Travis' last known location but were unable to find him. Rangers searched for more than two hours, but were unable to locate him.
Travis and Marlene were described as a "beautiful couple" by his brother (@GoFundMarlene/Venmo)Another search was conducted the next day of the area and shoreline, however, there were no signs of Travis.
Friends of Travis' family set up a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of additional searches. As of Thursday, June 15, it had more than doubled its target of $20,000.
"He was just everybody's favourite 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," Austin said.
Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park (Getty Images)Lake Crescent is described by the National Park Service as being a "deep and very cold body of water", with surface water temperatures at this time of year sitting around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10C).
The park service warns that: "Sudden immersion into cold water will impact a person's breathing and over time, their ability to move their extremities."
Travis grew up in Baldwin and worked for a financial services company Two Sigma at the time of his death, according to social media posts.
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The creators of the GoFundMe page said that while park rangers have searched the area, they don't have a dive team to search further.
Along with asking for financial help, they've put out a plea to anyone with contacts for search and recovery teams who could look for Travis.
"We need to be able to find him & bring him home. The family is obviously distraught & want their son's body back in NY", they wrote.