BOISE, Idaho — A Boise woman is now warning people about how dangerous canals can be after her husband of 20 years died after falling in one last month.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it like it was very hard for several days,” Kimberly Bankhead told KTVB on Saturday.
She has been reliving the moment when she found out her husband of 20 years, Steven, was no longer with her.
“It's been horrible,” Bankhead said.
On May 31, the Boise Fire Department pulled Steven Bankhead from the New York Canal. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
“To my knowledge, he was underwater for 36 minutes,” Bankhead said.
She adds investigators told her nearby surveillance video captured Steven sitting at the canal for nearly an hour, then walking along it by himself, but she says the video later lost sight of him.
Boise police told KTVB that they are investigating Steven’s death because they investigate all unattended deaths, but they say they do not suspect any foul play.
“This has been so traumatic like I just can’t believe it,” Bankhead said. “Steven was very loving, not a judgmental person, he loved music, he created music, he wrote music. He was just an incredible, loving person.”
Bankhead now wants to warn anyone who finds themselves near a canal about how dangerous they can be.
“The canal is a very dangerous area. I don’t think there should be any walking past the canal, and I believe the irrigation district needs to fence it off all throughout the city,” Bankhead said. “My other half is gone, it’s like the other half of me is gone, I’m incomplete without him.”
The Boise Fire Department posted on social media after the accident first happened about the dangers of canals and that they are not for recreation. The water is cold and steep banks around canals can make it very difficult to climb back out once someone is in the water. In some cases, there are also deceptively fast currents.
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