Brother Of The Man Who Got Pulled Into Sinkhole In His Bedroom Shares The Heartbreaking Last Words He Heard

The memory of a loved one is incredibly hard to shake off, especially when it's linked to a dramatic event.

Jeremy Bush, who lives in Florida, carries a particularly vivid and painful memory of his brother Jeffrey.

This memory has firmly planted itself in his mind since a harrowing incident back in March 2013.

Jeremy recalls that tragic day, hearing his brother Jeffrey call out to him from his bedroom in their Seffner home.

Jeffrey Bush has been presumed dead since March 2013. ABC Action News

Rushing in to help, Jeremy was confronted not by his brother, but by a massive sinkhole where the floor of the bedroom should have been. Jeffrey was nowhere to be seen.

Believing his brother had fallen into the sinkhole, Jeremy desperately tried to save him. He reached into the sinkhole, even climbing into it in an attempt to grab his brother.

Despite his efforts, Jeremy couldn’t find Jeffrey, though he could still hear his brother's screams echoing.

Jeremy vividly remembers the last thing his brother shouted; he explained: "The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care.

"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him. I wanted to save my brother. But I just couldn't do nothing."

In a desperate situation, Jeremy himself became trapped in the sinkhole, stuck in mud up to his neck.

Thankfully, a police officer from the Tampa Police Department was able to rescue him.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of Jeffrey, and subsequent attempts with equipment to locate him in the sinkhole also turned up nothing.

The loss devastated Jeremy and his family, who were all in the house at the time.

The home was eventually deemed too dangerous to inhabit.

Rescue efforts were halted, and engineers were barred from continuing the search.

The property was eventually demolished and filled in with gravel, leaving the family with no closure as to Jeffrey's whereabouts.

The sinkhole was later filled in and the property demolished. ABC Action News

Jeremy expressed his ongoing pain, saying:

"She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is. I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything."

With more than a decade having passed since the incident, Jeffrey has now been officially presumed dead.

The sinkhole that claimed him reopened a few years after his disappearance, prompting officials to fence it off as a safety measure to protect the public.

According to records from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, there were approximately 27,000 sinkhole incidents reported across the state in 2022, highlighting the ongoing risk these natural phenomena pose.