Ventura County

Teen's Body Found in Thousand Oaks Creek After Being Swept Away by Swift Water

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department found a teen's body in a remote area of the Arroyo Conejo Creek in Thousand Oaks on Saturday morning. The person was swept away by swift water during Friday's historic storms, officials said.

At about 2:30 p.m. Friday, the sheriff’s department received a call about three people stranded in Arroyo Conejo Creek in Thousand Oaks, Detective Timothy Lohman told NBC4. After rescuing the three people, detective learned a fourth person had been swept away by the strong current.

Officials continued their search efforts Saturday morning and found a man's body around 8:45 a.m. 

The man was identified Saturday as 18-year-old Josue Trinidad of Thousand Oaks.

Lohman said swift currents posed a serious danger during times of heavy rainfall.

"With situations like this the trails normally close during rainfall and the reason is because people don’t understand how fast water can rise," Lohman said.

"We had a lot of rain in the past couple of days so all of that water drains into these arroyos causing it to surge very quickly. If people are down in those Arroyos they don’t realize there might be an area where they might get trapped." 

The Conejo Valley trails and creeks are closed due to flood conditions.

Contact Us