Victim was earning money to send to his family in Mexico

For days, Jose Alvaro Arteaga-Pichardo’s family hoped for a miracle.

On Facebook, they blasted photos of his face, giving details about his age, his red Chevrolet Blazer and the last place he was seen alive, imploring friends to help them find him.

On Tuesday, search teams found the red Chevy Blazer near the Blanco River. Two hundred feet away from there, a body.

Wednesday morning, Hays County officials confirmed the body was Arteaga-Pichardo, a 29-year-old from Mexico who was caught in the weekend’s historic flooding on the Blanco while driving home from work.

“We were hoping for a miracle and it was not, so God has gained another angel,” Carolina Arteaga, his cousin, wrote on Facebook. “Our family will miss him dearly, we are all very thankful for your prayers and for sharing this information to help find him.”

“We refuse to believe this is real,” she continued. “We are all heartbroken and saddened by this horrible tragedy.”

The day his truck was swallowed up by the waters, Arteaga-Pichardo worked a Saturday shift for Neil Foreman’s flooring and tiling business, based in Wimberley before heading home to Blanco.

Around 4:30 p.m., Foreman said he told Arteaga-Pichardo they could head home and finish the job another day. But Arteaga-Pichardo said he wanted to finish. He planned to sleep in the entire next day.

“I said, ‘Man, you like to work,’” Foreman said. “He said, ‘I need the money. I have a year-and-a-half-old baby I send money to in Mexico.’”

A few hours later, they wrapped up the job and drove back to Foreman’s home, where Arteaga-Pichardo had left his truck. They said their goodbyes around 7:30 p.m.

“That’s the last time I’ve seen him,” Foreman said.

Arteaga-Pichardo, 29, hailed from San Miguel de Allende in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. For the past 10 years, he had traveled back and forth across the border, laboring to save money for his family, then going back to Mexico.

In August 2013, he had a son with his girlfriend in Mexico. A few weeks after the boy’s birth, Arteaga-Pichardo headed back to Texas to make more money to support his family.

“He was a workaholic,” Foreman said. “I lucked out by getting Jose. He’s an excellent guy.”

In recent months, Arteaga-Pichardo had told family members he planned to go back to Mexico and spend some time with his son, who he had not seen since he was a few months old.

Arteaga-Pichardo lived with his

As a longtime middle school teacher at St. James Episcopal School in Corpus Christi, Michelle Marie Carey-Charba extended the care of her students beyond the classroom. She tutored them, visited their homes and as they grew up, sometimes became their mentor.

On Wednesday, Charba, one of eight people missing from a cabin that was swept away over the long weekend by the Blanco River, was confirmed dead. Her body was recovered miles downstream in Caldwell County.

“You could count on her for anything,” said Debbie Forenthold, who had been friends with since Charba taught her now-grown daughters in middle school. “She was more than a teacher. When my kids were having problems, if they were struggling with those middle school relationships, she was always there to talk to them.”

Charba was among three families who spent the Memorial Day weekend staying in a vacation home along the Blanco River. As the river rose rapidly, the cabin was carried the raging current and later slammed into a bridge.

Charba, 43, is the first person of the group from the cabin to be confirmed dead.

Charba’s husband, Randy Charba, and their son, Will, 6, are still missing, as are her parents, Ralph and Sue Carey. Laura McComb and her children Andrew, 6, and Leighton, 4, also remain missing. Laura McComb’s husband, Jonathan, 36, was found alive Sunday on the shoreline about 10

The man whose body was found Tuesday morning after floodwaters receded in Northeast Travis County has been identified as 23-year-old Jonathan Walker of Houston, county deputies said.

On Monday evening, two people who were able to get out of their truck at a flooded low water crossing told deputies that a third person, Walker, did not manage to leave the vehicle, Travis County sheriff ’s office spokesman Roger Wade said in a press release. Walker did not get out of the truck before the two people lost sight of the vehicle, the release said.

Austin-Travis County EMS and Pflugerville Fire Department emergency responders searched for Walker for several hours but couldn’t locate him, the release said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the sheriff ’s underwater recovery team responded to the 7100 block of Jesse Bohls Drive after the tires of a truck became visible as floodwaters had receded, the release said. Walker’s body was found inside after the truck was pulled out to the road, the release said.

The medical examiner’s office Wednesday identified the man as Walker, the release said.

The incident is still under investigation, the release said.