Teen remembered as a hero after he drowned trying to save a friend

POINSETT, Ark. (WMC/Gray News) – Family and friends are grieving the death of a 17-year-old from Arkansas who drowned in a river trying to save the life of a friend.

Aaron Dexter died Thursday while he and his friends were out swimming in a river near Rivervale in Poinsett County.

His father, Officer John Dexter, said his son’s friend jumped off a bridge and got caught in an underwater current.

Aaron Dexter jumped off the bridge to save her and bring her back to the riverbank.

They both grabbed a tree branch for safety, but the teen’s dad said the branch snapped and pulled him away.

“We wanted to make it clear that Aaron sacrificed his life to save her life, and he deserves to be held as a hero and his bravery and his selflessness. It’s not something that everybody or anybody would’ve done,” John Dexter said.

The Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office said several rescue and first responder crews searched for the 17-year-old for over five hours before finding his body far downriver from where he went in.

According to his obituary, Aaron was a senior at Marked Tree High School and loved fashion, shoes, clothes, Valentino cologne and his hair. He also dreamed of starting his own online clothing store.