Tawny Hinton

Two 11-year-old boys were playing near a retention pond in Bentonville, Arkansas, on Aug. 29, 2022, when the one of them slipped into the water and was pulled through a concrete drainage pipe. The boy’s brother entered the water and reached out to grasp him before the current caused him to lose his footing. He returned to the bank and ran for help. Bentonville social worker Tawny Hinton, 47, was with the boys’ mother at their nearby apartment when the brother told them the boy entered the water and submerged. Hinton and the mother ran to the pond, where both entered the water. Hinton waded, then swam in murky water to a fast-moving area near the pipe entrance close to where the boy was last seen. She then submerged to search for the boy before she, ultimately, did not resurface. The mother of the boys attempted to reach Hinton before she was forced to exit the pond from the strength of the current. Emergency personnel located the boy in a drainage ditch about 500 yards away. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead from drowning. Hinton was located unresponsive 50 feet away from the pond in a storm drain beneath a manhole. She was taken to a hospital, but never regained consciousness before life support was withdrawn five days later. Hinton died of cardiac arrest and complications from drowning.