A Mother's Message

PIQUA, Ohio (WDTN) - The pain runs deep.

"The phrase that's it's a parents worst nightmare is definitely true."

The image Christian Rister sees every time she shuts her eyes is one she dreams about every night.

"You try to wake from it, you can't."

She flashes back to July 21st, the day Piqua search and rescue crews scoured the Great Miami River, for her son.

"The water was so murky that they couldn't see they had to put their hands in front of their masks and find him by feel."

By the time they found 16 year old William Brown it was too late Rister said.

"They told me it took, that he was under water for 49 minutes."

Now Rister is on a mission to talk to teens about peer pressure. She believes her son was a victim of peer pressure before he became a victim of the river.

"There's been several stories of his friends daring him to do things, to jump off the bridge to swim out to the buoys."

Rister says her son should have known better. A close cousin drowned in a Kentucky lake just four years ago.

"The ultimate decision still came down to my son. Whether it was peer pressure, or trying to impress a girl, you know whatever, you know he still made that decision."

Rister says teens can save lives by following a few simple rules.

"don't pressure your friends into doing something that you think would be fun. You know, swimming in a river or lake, you have currents, and you never know what's going to happen."

Reister has since moved away from Piqua. Her home was right across the street from where her son died.