VALLEY FALLS STATE PARK - Two brothers, both Mexican citizens, drowned late Tuesday afternoon when one fell into the Tygart Valley River below a set of falls and the other jumped in to try and save him, authorities said.

Their identities are being withheld until their families can be notified, police said. The men appeared to be in their mid- to late-20s, said Detective Shawn Mathews of the Marion Sheriff's department.

"Apparently one man was trying to cross the rocks (over the falls) when one fell in and the other went after him," Mathews said.

The wife of one of the men and her son, about 2, spoke only Spanish, he said.

She quickly became upset during the rescue attempt. Mathews had to restrain her at one point from trying to reach her husband while paramedics and emergency medical technicians with the Marion County Rescue Squad were trying to revive him.

The family had just come to the area from Washington State three weeks ago looking for a job. The man's younger brother had been working in Fairmont for about three years, the detective said.

Mathews led the wife away from the makeshift emergency room, set up in the shade of a large tree on a garage-size boulder on the north bank of the river.

When efforts to revive him stopped, Mathews quietly told her he had died. She again rushed to her husband's side, tugging off a white sheet that was wrapped around his head. Hugging his face in her arms, she bowed her own head in grief on his chest.

VALLEY FALLS STATE PARK - Two brothers, both Mexican citizens, drowned late Tuesday afternoon when one fell into the Tygart Valley River below a set of falls and the other jumped in to try and save him, authorities said.

Their identities are being withheld until their families can be notified, police said. The men appeared to be in their mid- to late-20s, said Detective Shawn Mathews of the Marion Sheriff's department.

"Apparently one man was trying to cross the rocks (over the falls) when one fell in and the other went after him," Mathews said.

The wife of one of the men and her son, about 2, spoke only Spanish, he said.

She quickly became upset during the rescue attempt. Mathews had to restrain her at one point from trying to reach her husband while paramedics and emergency medical technicians with the Marion County Rescue Squad were trying to revive him.

The family had just come to the area from Washington State three weeks ago looking for a job. The man's younger brother had been working in Fairmont for about three years, the detective said.

Mathews led the wife away from the makeshift emergency room, set up in the shade of a large tree on a garage-size boulder on the north bank of the river.

When efforts to revive him stopped, Mathews quietly told her he had died. She again rushed to her husband's side, tugging off a white sheet that was wrapped around his head. Hugging his face in her arms, she bowed her own head in grief on his chest.