NORTH BRANCH – At 7 a.m. Wednesday morning a worker who was remodeling a home at 572 North Branch Rd. in the Town of Callicoon spotted a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck lodged against the bank of the raging North Branch Creek. Troopers from State Police Liberty Barracks and other emergency personnel   immediately responded to the 911 call and began the search for the driver, who was not in the half-submerged vehicle.

State Police later identified the victim as Jesus Arroyo Ortega, 39, of Livingston Manor. His body was recovered over 2.6 miles downstream following a nearly three-and-a-half-hour search.

A hard rainstorm throughout the day on Tuesday and into the night had turned the normally quiet brook into a four-foot deep, chocolate-colored torrent.

Within minutes of the 911 call, emergency personnel started responding to the scene.

“I had walked down to the barn about 6:30 this morning,” a local farmer, whose farm is across the street from the accident, said Wednesday. “I walked down to the brook to see if maybe a cow or calf had tried to cross my small stream behind the barn and maybe got washed downstream.

“The rain had really eroded a lot of the stream bank and when I looked upstream I thought I saw a rock that I didn’t remember being there,” the farmer said. “I walked up there and saw it was a pickup truck.”

At about the same time the carpenter who was working on the house spotted the vehicle and called 911.

In addition to the State Police, Roscoe-Rockland Fire Department’s and Rock Hill Fire Department’s Swift Water Rescue Teams were called in and Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild set up a command post across the street from the accident. New York State Police, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, North Branch Fire Dept., Hortonville Fire Department, Sullivan County Search and Rescue, the New York State Forest Rangers, and Upper Delaware Ambulance Corps all responded to the scene with Callicoon, Liberty and Callicoon Center Fire Depts. on standby, officials said.

“This incident showcased the capabilities of the Sullivan County Search and Rescue Team, utilizing several advanced technologies during the search including TAK for GPS tracking and mapping, unmanned aircraft systems, and Starlink communications to enhance coordination in the field. Despite the extensive efforts of all responding agencies, the victim was tragically located by one of the search teams in the Callicoon Creek near Route 17B,”  a Sullivan County Bureau of Fire spokesman said.

The Investigation determined that Arroyo Ortega was operating the pickup truck on North Branch Rd. when he was involved in a vehicle collision with a utility pole sometime during the morning hours of July 29.

During the accident, the pickup truck hit several small saplings and clipped a utility pole, losing a tire, and part of its fender and ending up in the North Branch Creek. The truck floated approximately 200 yards before becoming lodged on the bank of the creek.

The investigation is ongoing, according to the State Police.

Community in Shock

The news of Jesus Arroyo Ortega’s passing sent shock waves through Callicoon, where he and his wife, Judy, both work.

Arroyo Ortega was employed as the head chef at the very popular Peppino’s Restaurant on Main St., Callicoon, while his wife, Judy, works as a manager at the Callicoon Caffé eatery on Audley Dorrer Dr.

The couple owned a home on Shandelee Rd. and, according to a close family friend, “They are a real American success story.”