Emergency crews headed back out on the Rock River near Barstow, Illinois Monday, searching for a Colona man who went missing while swimming over the weekend.

Conditions on the river have made the job easy. The water is dark and muddy, and the current is moving fast, making things difficult for the crews staging what has gone from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

TV6 spoke with a family representative who says right now, they're in shock about what happened to their beloved father.

"It was a family outing and they were swimming all day," says Rev. Michael Rubino. "They got there early in the morning and they were having a good time."But that family outing along the Rock River quickly took a turn for the worse.

Rev. Rubino says the unidentified man jumped off the Barstow railroad bridge, as he and others had done hundreds of times before, when tragedy struck.

"When her husband jumped in and the children saw him, he looked disoriented and he went under, at which time the children jumped in to try and save him," Rubino says. "He was no longer above water."

Rubino says the man's two teenaged sons jumped in to try to save their father, but were unsuccessful.

Witnesses called 911, hoping firefighters and other emergency personnel would have better luck. Those emergency crews have spent the past several days searching the area. They say Mother Nature isn't doing them any favors.

"The challenge that there's been for rescuers is the water's moving a lot faster than it normally is and that's because of all the rain water that's rushing in from the other storms," says Barstow Fire Chief Mat Schnepple.

Schnepple says he's had crews out on the river since the early morning hours in hopes that they'll be able to find the man and give his family some peace.

"The boats that were out at first light this (Sunday) morning used sophisticated sonar equipment that has GPS built into it," Schnepple says. "They were actually able to mark the areas that they had searched with their GPS."

"Having closure, finding the husband, going through the burial," Rubino says. "I think that would be a good thing."

Firefighters are not releasing that man's name at this time, saying only that he was a father of seven in his 40s visiting Barstow from Colona.

Right now they're working with witnesses to figure out where the current may have taken the man.