Bob Brown knew something was wrong Saturday afternoon when he heard helicopters over his neighborhood and sirens in the eastern Goleta Valley. 

He drove up the street to see what was going on, and found numerous fire trucks, ambulances, and sheriff’s vehicles. A search-and-rescue team member told him they had an operation underway in Maria Ygnacio Creek. 

The incident ended when a man was found dead in the creek near San Marcos Road and Via Parva at about 1:50 p.m.

The victim was last seen stranded in the creek in the area of North San Marcos Road, county fire Capt. Mike Gray said. 

Brown, who lives on Via Piccoli, said sheriff’s deputies told him someone had tried to cross the creek.

Capt. Scott Safechuck of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department confirmed that three people were in a full-size pickup truck when they attempted to cross the creek on Via Regina.

 “What happened is that the water was much higher than anticipated, so when they went through, their vehicle became incapacitated,” Safechuck said.

When they tried to get out of the truck, one of the occupants was washed downstream by the swift current.

The vehicle also was washed just downstream of the creek crossing, less than 50 feet away, Safechuck said. 

Personnel from Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue, County Fire, the Sheriff’s Office, American Medical Response and the California Highway Patrol responded to the incident after a family member called 9-1-1 to report that a man had been swept into the creek.

Safechuck noted that anytime there’s swift water moving, it only takes less than two feet of depth to wash a vehicle downstream. His advice is don’t drown, turn around. 

“We understand that it’s difficult for people to have to wait, being inconvenienced by their path being impeded by swift moving water,” Safechuck said.

“A lot of people still want to chance it, and you really never know how deep it is until they start driving through it, and it’s too late by then.”

Residents are advised to wait until the water recedes, and to stay away from river and creek embankments as the soil is unsteady after recent rain.

The situation was sadly familiar to Brown, who remembered when Peter Knudsen Miller, 86, was found dead in the same creek after his family reported him missing.

They discovered his truck stuck in the creek after he tried to cross at the 5000 block of Via Alba in February 2024.

“It seems to be during heavy rainfall, I don’t want to say it’s a predictable thing, because it’s not, but something that’s oddly happened a couple of times now,” Brown said. 

The creek usually becomes a point of concern in the winter, Brown said, as neighbors do worry about it overflowing. 

The Coroner’s Office has yet to release the identification of the man who was found in the creek on Saturday.