A former minor league baseball player and father drowned after getting caught in a rip current while trying to save a family in the water in South Carolina, according to police and a fundraiser for his family.
Chase Childers, 38, went into the water off Pawleys Island, a barrier island in South Carolina, with another person the afternoon of July 13 to help four or five people who were in distress in the water, according to the Pawleys Island Police Department. Police responded to a report at about 4:45 p.m. and learned one person was missing in the water. Childers was recovered at about 6:15 p.m., police said.
‘He died trying to save others,’ the police department said.
Childers was signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 2009 and played at the rookie level for teams affiliated with the Orioles in 2009 and 2010, according to the MLB. He also served as a police officer in Cobb County, Georgia, according to a fundraiser for his family verified by GoFundMe.
‘In a heroic act, he saved a family of five in a moment of crisis in Pawleys Island on Sunday afternoon, putting their lives above his own,’ the fundraiser said. ‘Tragically, after giving everything he had to save them, he was unable to stay above water as the rip tide swept him away, ultimately paying the highest sacrifice with his life in front of his three children and wife.’
Childers was survived by his wife Nataley and three children, according to the fundraiser.
Rip currents, fast-moving channels of water that flow away from the shore, can drag a swimmer way out into the ocean and exhaust them trying to fight their way out. At least three dozen other people have died so far in 2025 in surf zone-related incidents, with the majority caught by rip currents, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 2010, more than 800 people have died in rip current drownings. Thousands of people are estimated to be rescued from rip currents annually.
Pawleys Island Mayor Brian Henry said in a social media post that the town urges caution to swimmers entering the water and that the town council will investigate ways to prevent future tragedies.
‘The Town is saddened by the report of the drowning over the weekend. We pray for the family members and offer our condolences,’ Henry said.