This article has been updated.
The search continued Tuesday, July 22, for a missing male after an incident at Deschutes River’s Dillon Falls on July 19 that killed two women. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office says six people were floating the river with their inner tubes tied together. A news release stated that the three survivors jumped from their tubes and made it to shore while two women and a male were swept over Dillon Falls which has a 15-foot drop and Class 5 rapids. It features long, violent, obstructed sections of whitewater with rocks, logs and other debris posing serious hazards even to experienced paddlers.
The Sheriff’s Office released the names of the two deceased females: 40-year old Amanda Lloyd, of Rockwall, Texas and 33-year old Lindsay Bashan of Parkland, Florida. The name of the missing male will be released once they are found and family has been notified. The Sheriff’s Office says the identities of the three survivors are being withheld out of respect for their privacy.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call about the Dillon Falls incident at approximately 2:57 pm on July 19. Emergency responders from DCSO, Bend Fire & Rescue, and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue arrived quickly on scene. There, the Bend Police Department provided drone support, while AirLink assisted with aerial search operations. After several hours, crews rescued three individuals from the river and took them by ambulance to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
The search continued until dark on Saturday and resumed on Sunday at 8am. Crews operating two drones looked for high-interest areas near and around Dillon Falls for survivors. Three K9 teams and 15 swiftwater rescue team members then searched these areas.
History of incidents at the falls
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has advised people planning to spend time on the water to wear properly fitted life jackets and be aware of river conditions. The agency noted that “the Deschutes River and other waterways in our region can be deceptively hazardous, especially during spring runoff or after heavy rains.”
This stretch of the Deschutes River near Sunriver has been the site of previous deadly accidents. In 2022, a local man and his friend were crossing the river upstream when they were caught in the current. He pushed the woman toward shore, where she arrived safely, but he went over the falls and did not survive. A police drone later found him deceased below the falls. In 2018, a woman from Bend and her visiting father were canoeing when their boat capsized. She survived, but her father did not. Further upstream in La Pine, a young woman was found deceased at Pringle Falls in May 2025.
Sean Jones, a diver with Deschutes County Search and Rescue who has been diving for the county for 21 years, grew up fishing and hunting along that stretch of river. Despite the river’s appearance, he would not recommend getting in the water there. “It is a really terrible piece of water, especially right there at the top of the falls,” Jones said. “It is a very violent piece of water right at the very top.”
This article appears in Source Weekly July 17, 2025.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Swept? Really? This implies they were victims. This isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that people haven’t paid attention to all the signage above Dillon Falls.
The County is apparently going to have to put a cable across the river with 9 signs hanging from the cable.
6 people on tubes just don’t get ‘swept’ over the falls. You have to really be asleep or drunk or negligent to miss all the signage.
Shame on sheriff for refusing Juan Heredia access to the river – and as of Wednesday afternoon NO coverage of this action by Sheriff on local tv “news”….