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As he reached the safety of the shore, 14-year-old Jeremiah Adams turned and watched Dustin Vollert’s arm sink below the river’s surface and disappear.

“He was the one to give me the last push, without him I wouldn’t have gotten out,” Adams said.

Vollert, 28, died Monday night saving his two sons and Adams from raging waters in the South Platte River near Centennial Park in Sheridan.

Vollert took his children, Brandon, 9, and Brody, 4, along with Adams and the Vollert family dog, Scooter, to the river at about 6 p.m. Monday to cool off.

At a press conference today in Englewood Adams said he was with Brandon in the river about 15-feet out from the shore when the 9-year-old started struggling with the strong current.

“Brandon was having huge trouble, he lost it,” Adams said.

Both Adams and Brandon couldn’t move against the current so Vollert jumped into the water to help them, Adams recalled, and then Brody jumped in after his father.

“He saw his brother struggling and thought he should help,” Adams said.

Vollert and the three boys worked their way out of danger.

“We were holding on to each other,” Adams said.

When they finally made it to the shore, Vollert apparently had no energy left. He pushed Adams to safety and disappeared beneath the surface.

Adams raced to Vollert’s cell phone and called 911 for help. He tried to flag down bicyclists on the river path but no one stopped to help, Adams said.

Rescuers from the Englewood and Sheridan Fire and Police Departments couldn’t find Vollert Monday night.

This morning his body was found along the east bank about 75-yards north of where they had gone into the river, said Sheridan Police Sgt. Gary Firko.

The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office will perform and autopsy to determine if any unknown factors contributed to Vollert’s death.

Celeste Vollert, Dustin’s wife, attended the press conference with Adams, her two boys and Scooter, but she was too devastated to comment.

Adams, who has been a baby-sitter for the boys, said they had all gone to the river many times and never had any problems in the past. The section of the Platte where the accident happened is popular with swimmers, tubers and kayakers and on hot weekends dozens of people use the river.

Vollert worked as a painter. A memorial fund to benefit his family as been set up and contributions can be made at any U.S. Bank branch, said Veronica Miles, a family friend.

Friends in Vollert’s closeknit neighborhood were struggling today with his death.

“He smiled and the room lit up,” said Pauline Zuke. “He was the most fantastic father.”

Adams also said he looked up to Vollert as a father figure. The teenager, a freshman at Englewood High School, has been replaying the tragedy in his mind.

“I’m trying to think of something I could have done differently,” Adams said. “He was a good man, he gave his life for us.”

As 9-year-old Brandon petted Scooter under a shade tree today a reporter asked the boy, “What will you miss most about your father?”

The boy thought for a moment, looked up and said: “Everything.”

Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.