Body of missing teenage swimmer found in Ocean City

The body of a 17-year-old boy who went swimming in Ocean City, Maryland, has been located.

The Annapolis teenager, whose identity is not currently being released, went swimming Wednesday afternoon in the ocean. His body was found just before 1 p.m. Thursday in the area of 13th Street.

“Lifeguards spotted an object in the ocean, once they reached it, it turned out to be the teenager’s body. The body was pulled to shore and taken to the medical examiner’s office in Baltimore to determined the cause of death,” an Ocean City Fire Department spokesman said.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol responded to several swimmers in distress in the area of 112th Street on Wednesday just before 4 p.m. Lifeguards noticed a group that appeared to be struggling to swim.

Three swimmers exited the water, while Ocean City Beach Patrol staff tried to rescue one swimmer who was being swept away in a rip current, the Ocean City Fire Department said in a news release.

First responders from the fire department, the U.S. Coast Guard and Natural Resources Police were dispatched to the area, as well as a team of 50 surf rescue technicians with Ocean City Beach Patrol.

The search continued through the night Wednesday, with the U.S. Coast Guard looking by boat, and resumed Thursday morning.

A Coast Guard cutter and helicopter were used in the search.

WTOP’s Abigail Constantino contributed to this report. 

Thomas Robertson

Thomas Robertson is an Associate Producer and Web Writer/Editor at WTOP. After graduating in 2019 from James Madison University, Thomas moved away from Virginia for the first time in his life to cover the local government beat for a small daily newspaper in Zanesville, Ohio.

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