PASADENA, Texas – A teenager drowned in after she was swept into a bayou.
Tera Gill's family said she often took a shortcut through a ditch to get home. She took that shortcut on Tuesday, but she never made it home.
Pasadena police said Tera was swept into Vance Bayou. Her body was found Tuesday night.
"The water is too rapid," Pasadena resident Amanda Ramos said. "The current is really bad right there."
Ramos did not know Tera, but Wednesday she visited the site where the teen died.
"I have five children of my own," Ramos said. "I don't want nothing like this to happen to my children."
Tera's relatives said she went to school in Pasadena. She lived there with her father and stepmother.
"I just want my family to remember the good times," cousin Shelby Gill said.
Family members said they urged other parents to talk to their children about the dangers of taking a shortcut at a bayou.