'They're both dads,' Families ask questions after men found in river

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- The wreckage of a black 2018 RAM pickup truck is a mangled mess after being pulled out of the St. Joseph River Wednesday. Inside were the bodies of two men, nephew and uncle, 30-year-old Theo Bean and 39-year-old Tireno Washington.

The men had been missing since Sunday morning shortly after 5 a.m.

"I found out that he went missing on Sunday," said Sarah Fried, the mother of two of Bean's children, "and then I started posting and posting and having everybody share, try to look for him and everything."

"They're both dads. They don't just go missing," Fried continued.

Another family member told ABC57's Annie Kate the men were leaving a friend's house early Sunday morning, heading back to Washington's Bristol home.

She filed a missing person's report for Bean Monday night. She said police didn't help search for a couple days, but Captain Mike Culp said the Elkhart County Sheriff's Office assigned a detective to the case Tuesday morning.

At that time, they also entered Bean's name into the Indiana Data and Communications System.

Meanwhile, the Bristol Police Department got a call Monday morning at about 6:30 a.m. that Washington was missing.

Both agencies had to work together to find the men, but Culp said the case didn't meet the criteria to warrant something like a Silver Alert.

The Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook Wednesday about the missing men, just hours before the truck, and the bodies, were found in the river off State Road 120, east of Merry Drive.

Initially, investigators said the crash happened Wednesday afternoon, but then corrected themselves-- that was only when people discovered the crash. The truck could have been in the river as early as Sunday.

There are so many questions in this tragedy which have yet to be answered by the Elkhart County Sheriff's Office as the investigation continues.

"I don't know what to tell my two children," Fried said. "They're 3 and 1. They're never going to see their dad again."

Both men were fathers, and both men leave behind heartbroken families.

Their autopsies are scheduled for Friday.