Diver breaks down recounting search for drowned sisters in Armenian river

Veteran rescue diver Vahe Melkonyan fought back tears as he recounted the harrowing search for two young sisters whose bodies were recovered from the Pambak River after they disappeared while running a simple errand.

“Every case leaves a mark on me, especially when it involves children,” Melkonyan said. “It is incredibly painful.”

Melkonyan was part of the rescue team called to the northern city of Vanadzor after a 7-year-old girl and her 13-year-old sister went missing. The children had reportedly left home before they vanished.

The search consumed Melkonyan for days.

“I would return home around 10 or 11 at night and try to sleep, but I couldn’t,” he said. “I spent the entire night thinking, studying maps, asking myself where the river might have carried them, where I had not yet searched, where I needed to look again.”

The younger sister was discovered approximately 500 meters downstream from where the incident occurred. A fallen tree had become lodged in the river, trapping the child beneath its branches.

“I found her by touch,” Melkonyan said. “I felt her little hand and struggled to free her from the tangled limbs.”

The search for the older sister continued for several more days.

According to Melkonyan, powerful currents had swept the 13-year-old beneath another submerged tree, where sediment and sand had gradually buried her body.

“Holding my breath, I kept diving and digging,” he recalled. “I eventually brought her up from beneath the sand.”

“They had set out to have a meal, but went missing on the way. That is what weighs heavily on me.”

The experienced diver has recovered numerous drowning victims over the years.

“I have retrieved children whose feet were no bigger than a doll’s,” he said.

Melkonyan described river rescue operations as among the most challenging assignments emergency responders face, citing unpredictable currents, submerged obstacles and poor visibility.

“There is nothing heroic about it,” he said, his eyes filling with tears. “A person simply has to live with a conscience. I don’t do this—my heart does.”