Parents say goodbye to their son after body recovered from Modesto Reservoir

Robyn Johnson Castillo held her little boy’s body in her arms and kissed him one last time at Modesto Reservoir on Saturday morning.

After divers “took him out of the water, I am so thankful he looked exactly the same,” Johnson Castillo said. “I opened his eyes, he had the biggest, prettiest green eyes and his hair was a dark blond.”

Her firstborn child, 11-year-old Martin Castillo Jr., drowned at the reservoir after jumping from a paddle boat with three other children Friday.

Members of the Stanislaus County Sheriff Department’s Dive Team found Martin’s body 10 feet beneath the surface using sonar, according to Lt. Tori Hughes. Divers recovered his body and took him to one of the reservoir’s boat ramps, where his parents identified him and said goodbye.

Martin played the violin, basketball and football, and he loved to sing and dance. He was a straight-A student who had just graduated sixth grade at Franklin Elementary School in Modesto, where he was involved in the Junior Scientist program and the Future Cities competition, said Johnson Castillo.

“I was just telling his dad the other day, ‘Sometimes I think he is too good to be true,’ ” she said. “We were always busy going to his football games or violin concerts.”

She said Martin had his life planned and liked to talk about the future.

“He was just telling me and his dad that for his 21st birthday we can go with him to Vegas but we can’t stay in his room,” Johnson Castillo said. “He wanted to be a doctor. He said he might be a plastic surgeon and that he would give me a ‘mommy makeover.’ ”

Martin was at Baptista Point at Modesto Reservoir with his grandmother, Johnson Castillo’s mom, and other friends and family members for a weekend camping trip.

They’d been there only a few hours when Martin and three other children, two 10-year-olds and a 12-year-old, decided to untether the paddle boat from the shore. High winds and the current quickly pushed it out into the middle of the reservoir.

Johnson Castillo said there were life jackets on the boat but the children were not wearing them.

Adult family members saw the children and called for them to come back to the shore, according to the Sheriff’s Department. For unknown reasons, the children jumped in and quickly began struggling to swim.

Family members used an air mattress to get to the children. They were able to rescue three of them.

Martin’s body was discovered about 9:30 Saturday morning upon the first drop of a sonar detection device into the water.

The team did eight sonar drops Friday, each covering circles 35 feet in diameter. They worked for about six hours Friday and did four dives when the sonar detected objects; two were weighted barrels used by hunters to anchor duck blinds and the other two were patches of grass.

Dive team Sgt. Paul Yotsuya said deputies changed their search pattern Saturday, making a plan to search perpendicular rather than parallel to the shore. Martin’s body was found about 100 yards from an island across from Baptista Point.

The Castillo family moved to Keyes from Modesto last year, but Martin wanted to stay in Modesto schools with his friends, Johnson Castillo said.

She said her son was very popular and younger kids looked up to him. He was always well-dressed, a “sneaker head” who had to have the latest Jordans or Vans. She said he would take good care of his clothes and shoes so he could give them to younger kids when he outgrew them.

Johnson Castillo said Saturday evening that she’d spoken to at least a dozen of his friends who had called her crying over the loss of their friend.

His little sister, Kelis, 6, is taking it the hardest, she said.

“(Martin) slept with my daughter every night,” Johnson Castillo said. “She didn’t realize what was going on until it was late and time to go to bed. She couldn’t sleep.”

The family is looking for a large venue for the funeral that can accommodate at least 200 people. A GoFundMe account has been established to help with funeral expenses at www.gofundme.com/2b8ua24

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Parents say goodbye to their son after body recovered from Modesto Reservoir."