For grief-stricken Kathryn Derksen, the news that her son drowned Thursday night in the Gorge Waterway was a terrible, double blow, coming just a month after police said serial killer Robert Pickton should be charged with killing her daughter.

The Victoria woman confirmed yesterday that her son, Victor Greek, 46, died after a boat he was in with his wife, Eveline Greek, 51, and a 44-year-old unidentified man, flipped just off Banfield Park a little after 5 p.m.

While Eveline and the man were rescued and taken to hospital, Greek’s lifeless body was pulled from the water around 9 p.m.

Yesterday, Derksen struggled with the news that her second child has died.

In 1991, Derksen’s daughter, Nancy Clark, who had changed her last name from Greek, went missing. The 25-year-old was last seen in Victoria, but her name has been on the list of missing women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for many years.

Just a month ago, on Oct. 28, RCMP announced they were recommending that Pickton, who was convicted in 2007 of killing six women, be charged in six more deaths — including Clark’s.

In a brief interview yesterday, an obviously shaken Derksen said that Greek had suffered a blow to the head when he was young, which injured him so severely that he had to re-learn how to speak and walk.

He lived on a disability pension, and had two sons with Eveline. Greek had owned a boat, moored in the Gorge, for several months. “He loved the boat. He had such big plans,” she said.

Greek “was just a happy lucky guy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” she added.

Yesterday, a friend of the couple described them as “beautiful, beautiful people.”

“They knew what it was like to be loving, giving and kind,” said Rich Rico, a folk artist. He said the boat was a pleasure craft, not a liveaboard.

Victoria police believe the couple and their friend were on the boat in the afternoon and were returning to shore in a dinghy when it capsized. Passersby heard their screams and called 9-1-1.

Yesterday, Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham praised two constables from the police marine response unit who pulled the two survivors from the water. “It goes without saying how proud I am, and the whole department is,” said Graham.

Constables Brent Burger and Debbie Wyatt rushed to the scene in a police Zodiac-style boat, and spotted a man and a woman clinging to the skiff. They managed to pull the woman into the boat, but as they were doing so, the man lost his grip, and started to sink beneath the surface of the icy water.

“He let go. He was thrashing in the water for a little bit then he stopped and he had gone under. He wasn’t moving anymore,” said Wyatt.

With Burger driving the boat, Wyatt jumped into the water, with only a marine survival jacket for protection, and pulled the stricken man to the surface.

Wyatt and the man, who was unconscious, had to remain in the water for at least five minutes until a Victoria Fire Department boat could get to them — the side of the police boat was too high for Wyatt and Burger to haul the man out.

“It was cold, very cold,” said Wyatt. “For [the two survivors] to hold onto the rope as long as they were would have been very difficult.”

Wyatt said the man was unconscious the whole time she held him up. The woman was conscious but unable to speak.

Because Eveline Greek couldn’t speak, rescuers weren’t sure there was a third person in the water. Personnel from Victoria police, Victoria, Saanich and Esquimalt fire departments, the coast guard and CFB Esquimalt, combed the waterway for any signs of Greek.

After 3 1/2 hours, members of the police dive team found his body submerged in the water near where the boat overturned.

None of the three was wearing life jackets, police say.

Yesterday, neighbours in the area complained that boats moored in the waterway have become a growing concern.

Val and Paul Ciceri say the boats have been cleared out in years past, but about a year ago, they started to return, bringing with them activities like onboard parties.

“It’s so sad that somebody had to die,” said Val.

The Ciceris have complained to city officials, but jurisdiction in the waterway is complex and involves all three levels of government.

It’s an issue that will be addressed in a police investigation into the response to the accident, Graham said yesterday. “It’s a huge jurisdictional patchwork quilt,” he said.

Victoria police discounted reports suggestions the search would have been aided by a spotlight from a rescue helicopter, saying it would have been more trouble than it was worth, particularly in a small enclosed area like the Gorge waterway, where it would have whipped up waves in the water.

rwatts@tc.canwest.com