Editor’s note: If you are experiencing a crisis, help is available. You can call the Northwest Human Services Hotline at 503.581.5535 or 1.800.560.5535. The National Suicide Prevention hotline is 988. Oregon teens can contact Lines for Life’s YouthLine daily from 4-10 p.m. to chat confidentially with a trained teen by texting 839863, calling 877-968-8491 or chatting online.
Derik Morganstern was standing on the west bank of the Willamette River late one night when he saw a stranger climb over the rail of the Union Street Bridge.
He watched as she jumped into the river. It was not long before midnight on Monday, Aug. 12.
Morganstern, 36, dropped his bag, took off his shirt and emptied his pockets. He told his pit bull, Brownie, to stay put on the shore. And then he went into the river after her.
He did so with a broken arm and never having been a strong swimmer. Morganstern reached the woman in the current, and pushed her out of the undertow so she could reach the bank.
She made it out of the water but he went under and disappeared.
Divers recovered his body later that week on Friday, Aug. 16.
The discovery confirmed what his sister, Alaina Morganstern, had felt as soon as she learned that Brownie was found but that no one had seen her brother since he disappeared under the water. He was homeless and living at Wallace Marine Park. She knew he would have returned to his dog if he had made it out of the water.
Friday afternoon, several hours before volunteers from Oregon Rescue Divers would locate her brother’s body, Morganstern fielded phone calls and watched the divers work. She’d driven down from her home in Hillsboro, and was accompanied at the park by three of her brother’s close friends, their dogs and a local homeless advocate.
“No matter his struggles, his heart was to help. There was a bunch of people down there, from what I’ve been told. He was the only one that went in the water. He knows how dangerous it is,” she said.
Dispatch records show that, after the calls reporting the woman’s jump came in, shortly before 11 p.m. a responding police officer saw someone in the water but couldn’t tell who it was. Within 10 minutes of the call, the Salem Fire Department had one of its boats on the water to attempt a rescue, according to fire department spokesman Brian Carrara. The crew had no luck finding Morganstern.
The woman was transported to the hospital Monday night. Morganstern’s sister said that the woman is local, and that she reached out to her on Tuesday to share what happened that night. She’s since entered treatment, Morganstern said.
Three days later, a Polk County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue crew did another search of the river but did not locate Morganstern.
His sister said she heard about his disappearance through a witness reaching out on Facebook about the incident, and in the days since the incident the Wallace Marine Park homeless community helped her locate Brownie and piece together the story.
Between Tuesday and Friday, over 100 community members searched for her brother, she said, at the river and in all of his usual hang out spots, all the way downriver to Keizer Rapids Park.
Morganstern said she wants the community to know that Salem’s homeless community came together to support her, and try to help her brother. She spent the days after his disappearance feeling that his disappearance was not a priority due to his status as a camper.
”The people that I expect to help, haven’t. The people that everyone says they’re afraid of have been instrumental. It’s so frustrating. And the fact that no news picked it up,” she said.
On Thursday, Oregon Rescue Divers reached out to a friend of Morganstern’s, and by the end of a phone call had committed to send three divers over from Bend. The nonprofit does such searches free of charge.
The divers located Morganstern’s body around 3 p.m. on Friday, roughly 75 yards downriver from the bridge, and contacted police. They recovered it and turned it over to the Salem Police Department and a medical examiner aboard the fire department’s boat, according to diver Devon Carroll.
A common story
Morganstern grew up in a house off of Northeast Shipping Street. He was loud, energetic and the youngest of six siblings. In July, he posted a photo of his childhood home on Facebook captioned “The house I grew up in.”
His sister said he had an impish grin, and never met a tree he couldn’t climb.
“When he smiled at you, man. You just felt important,” she said.
He struggled with mental health issues as a teenager, and dropped out of North Salem High School.
“He fell into a hole, and it kind of gripped him. The whole friend group kind of fell in. And it was hard to watch,” Morganstern said.
He struggled with addiction, and would go through cycles of cleaning up before “those demons would come back,” his sister said. “It’s unfortunately a common story.”
Over the years, he was arrested for a variety of crimes, from theft to assault.
Morganstern said it’s hard to have a family member going through those cycles. She had reconnected with her brother a few months ago, and they talked about taking steps to rebuild his life.
“It’s hard that I was just trying to rebuild,” she said. “Especially when you try to help them, and then they break some boundaries and you have to try it again. I beat myself up for not being around more.”
Salem’s homeless community was his family, too, she said. Salemites might remember him riding through downtown on a skateboard, towed by Brownie.
”He loved that damn dog, and that dog went everywhere with him,” his sister said.
Friends described him as selfless. He looked out for his neighbors and people in need, and would give to others despite not having much himself, they said.
Morganstern is survived by seven children. He was also close with his nieces and nephews, who he taught to skateboard.
Morganstern said she wants people to know what her brother did that night, under the Union Street Bridge.
”The fact that he went into the water, with all of his detriment to himself,” she said. “Homeless people are not bad. They’ve been so welcoming, so helpful to me. I wouldn’t have made it this far in the journey of trying to find Brownie, and trying to find his stuff without them.”
Brownie will be moving to Utah, to live with Morganstern’s niece.
A service is planned for Saturday, Aug. 24, at 3 p.m. at the Wallace Marine Park old boat ramp. His ashes will be placed on a miniature Viking boat, and people are welcome to bring a small trinket or letter to place on it. All are welcome. See the Facebook event here.
After the celebration of life, there will be a potluck at 4 p.m. with hot dogs. “If anyone would like to contribute to the Potluck we would appreciate it, ANYTHING helps and is welcomed,” the family’s memorial Facebook page said.
The family is accepting Cash App donations for funeral expenses at $4Engstrom, and on Venmo at @Engstrom4.
UPDATE: This story was updated to include information about the celebration of life and where to donate for funeral expenses.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
