Loved ones mourn KC man who drowned on Florida trip: ‘Our first family vacation’
Dakota Jones, his wife, Skylar Biggs Jones, and their 14-month-old daughter, Brinnley, were in the Florida Panhandle last week on a long-anticipated trip when tragedy struck. It was their first vacation together as a young family.
“We had so many plans, and he dreamed so big,” Biggs Jones said on Tuesday, reflecting on the life of her 31-year-old husband, who drowned in the water off Panama City Beach in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. “He wanted nothing but the world for us, and he worked his ass off for it.”
As the family’s trip drew to a close on Thursday evening, Jones and a friend, who had joined them, splashed into the water. They jumped waves and basked in the moment. Biggs Jones watched from farther up the beach as the waves grew and then, as an undercurrent ripped the two men out into open water in an instant. Both struggled to stay above water.
“He wasn’t being careless,” Biggs Jones said. A red flag caution told visitors of hazardous conditions that day, and her husband was aware of the warning, she said. The water had only been at his waist, she said.
“It just had a mind of its own I guess,” she added.
The family friend managed to make it back to shore. First-responders pulled Jones from the water and made efforts to revive him. It was at a local hospital that Biggs Jones was told her husband hadn’t survived.
In that moment, there were no tears. All she could do was scream.
“It was our first family vacation,” she said on Tuesday. “We always said that we wanted to go on all these family vacations, because neither of us really got that growing up.”
The two met on the dating app Tinder in 2019, just before the Coronavirus pandemic threw the world into turmoil. They eventually got married in 2024 and welcomed their daughter, Brinnley, to the family last year. The couple found joy in their Kansas City Chiefs and traveling to away games. The two would play video games together for hours.
Jones was relentlessly positive, worked hard and loved his daughter, Biggs Jones said. He worked loading and unloading railroad cargo in Kansas City, and even after long, grinding days, he would come home ready to shower love on his daughter.
“It didn’t matter how hard of a day he had, the moment he walked through the door, he would immediately go to our daughter and say, ‘Hi, Brinn-Brinn,’” Biggs Jones said. “His eyes would light up, her eyes would light up.”
A GoFundMe page has been established to raise money for the family. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had drawn nearly $11,000 in contributions.
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 5:02 PM.
