NEED TO KNOW

Last year, Juan Heredia decided to help a local mom in California whose son had vanished into a river. Then he learned how many other people need his help

Since then, Heredia, a father and volunteer diver, has recovered 15 missing bodies

Loved ones of those he's helped praise his "combination of courage, devotion and faith"

In March 2024 Juan Heredia saw another parent’s plea for help with their teenage son and couldn’t get it out of his head.

Fifteen-year-old Xavier Martinez had made a fatal mistake when he jumped into the Calaveras River next to his high school in Stockton, Calif., and never came back out.

Official rescue teams scoured the water for six days to no avail. His mother, Amanda Martinez, began appearing on the local news, and Heredia and his daughter Camila

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