12-Year-Old Leverett Boy Identified After Drowning In Puerto Rico

LEVERETT, MA — Leverett Elementary School administration identified Zedekiyahu Miller as the sixth-grade student who drowned while vacationing in Puerto Rico earlier this week.

"We are working with Riverside Trauma Center to support our staff and students through this incredibly difficult time," Leverett Elementary School Principal Annie Foley Ruiz said. "The student we lost was a beautiful soul and we will miss him sorely."

Police in Puerto Rico say 12-year-old Miller was on vacation with the family of a friend, whose father was his soccer coach.

The Miller family gave their son permission to travel to Puerto Rico with his soccer coach, Keith Payne, and his family. "We want the world to know and feel the love and brightness of his spirit," his mother Swan Keyes told Patch.

It took two days for a dive unit to find his body, which had washed up near the shoreline of Condado Beach, said Ricardo Castrodad - a public affairs specialist with the San Juan sector of the Coast Guard.

After getting to their hotel Sunday night, the boy and his 11-year-old friend ran toward the water and were swept out to sea after 9 p.m., according to Puerto Rican authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 11-year-old boy was able to make it safely out of the water, but Miller was pulled out by the current and drowned, Henry Neumann Zayas, a Puerto Rican senator confirmed.

Condado Beach is one of the most dangerous on the island, with at least 8 reported drownings happening within the last year alone, Castrodad said.

Leverett Elementary School officials say they will offer counseling services to any students or staff affected by the tragic event.