New Details In Teen's Drowning Death At Jersey Shore Beach

BELMAR, NJ — As the community grapples with the death of a 13-year-old child who got caught in a rip current in Belmar on Friday night, the chief of the Belmar Beach Patrol was begging people to stay out of the water.

Harry M. Harsin, the chief lifeguard of the Belmar Beach Patrol, identified the 13-year-old who died as a girl in a statement on the beach patrol's Facebook page on Saturday.

The girl's name and hometown have not been released.

"Belmar experienced another senseless tragedy when a 13-year-old girl lost her life on the 8th Ave. Beach," Harsin said.

Belmar police said they received multiple 911 calls at 6:36 p.m. Friday reporting a swimmer in distress. Lifeguards had gone off duty at 6 p.m., according to Belmar's beach website.

When police arrived they learned one swimmer was out of the water but another juvenile swimmer was missing. Harsin said members of the Belmar Water Rescue Team conducted an exhaustive search until the girl's body was recovered a short distance from where she entered the water.

Belmar police said she was unresponsive when she was found at 7:29 p.m. off the 7th Avenue beach, and multiple first responders performed lifesaving efforts as she was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where she was later pronounced dead.

"I cannot emphasize enough that the ocean poses many dangers to those that enter the water when lifeguards are off duty," Harsin said. "Wind, waves, sandbars and riptides are a constant threat."

"Please, I am PLEADING with the public to use common sense and not let your loved ones into the water after hours," he said, and sent condolences to the family of the girl.

Officials up and down the Jersey Shore have been begging people to stay out of the water when lifeguards are off-duty particularly over the last two weeks, which have seen rough surf and dangerous conditions caused by storms offshore.

In Seaside Heights, Mayor Anthony Vaz announced the borough will close beach access gates right after the lifeguards go off-duty there to try to prevent further tragedies, following the Aug. 11 death of a 31-year-old Trenton man who drowned in a rip current. Several other swimmers had to be rescued that evening.

On Thursday night, two swimmers got caught in rip currents in the South Seaside Park section of Berkeley Township.

In both instances lifeguards had gone off-duty at 5 p.m.