According to WTHR, which spoke with the brother of the deceased, Garay was with his cousin Emma, who took him sightseeing. The cousin allegedly told Garay repeatedly not to get too close to the cliff. When walking away, Garay’s cousin looked back and realized he was no longer there.
The Coast Guard received a phone call about the incident, with a witness at the scene later saying that she saw Garay stumble toward the edge of the cliff. A helicopter began conducting a search that night.
Carlos Garay, older brother of Edgar, told the Indiana outlet that his brother was a daredevil.
“My brother has a TikTok account that he loved to upload videos to,” said the brother.
“Unfortunately, that was what he was trying to do when he was closer to the edge than he should have been,” he explained.
Garay’s injuries were described as “massive head injuries” by his brother, which resulted in him being “knocked out and drowning.”
The Coast Guard used multiple helicopters, a plane, and a 154-foot boat during its mission to retrieve Garay’s body.
“We express our most heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Edgar Garay and pray they find closure and strength during this most difficult time,” said Capt. José E. Díaz, Coast Guard Sector San Juan commander, calling the retrieval conditions a “highly inaccessible and challenging environment.”
Garay’s family set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of bringing the deceased back to the continental United States.
“Our family is now on a mission to bring our loveable sibling home so that he can be laid to rest among friends and family being able to have closer [sic] and say their good byes in a propper [sic] manner,” the page reads.
“Due to [the] unfortunate turn of events having the worst accident imaginable that led to his life being taken from us so young,” the post describes.
The fundraiser has acquired approximately 75% of its target funding at the time of this publication.
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