The body of a 16-year-old boy was recovered from Lake Worth Tuesday morning after the teen waded into the water the night before and never resurfaced, authorities say.
Rescue crews from Fort Worth and Lake Worth responded around 8 p.m. Monday to a report of a possible drowning at Camp Joy Park in the 9600 block of Watercress Drive, on the west side of Lake Worth, a Fort Worth fire spokesman said.
Crews were told a teenager had submerged under the water and did not come back up. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office identified the 16-year-old as Sergio Molina on Tuesday. Officer Daniel Segura, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department, confirmed Molina was the same subject of their missing persons report.
Molina's body was recovered Tuesday morning just before 9:30 a.m.
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Mary Laird lives near Camp Joy Park. She recalled a heavy presence of emergency responders on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
"All the ambulances, the fire trucks, medics, the dive team, helicopters and all that," Laird said. "So, we just sat on the porch and watched."
Two Fort Worth Fire Department dive teams along with the Marshal's Lake Patrol and Game Wardens searched the lake for more than two hours Monday until search efforts were suspended for the night.
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Matt Zavadsky with Medstar said their teams responded, as well. At first, they were unable to find anyone.
"Sadly, we were called back out there this [Tuesday] morning because somebody did actually find someone who had come ashore," Zavadsky said. ""The typical lake-water drowning response can be very, very large. So in additional to Medstar or other EMS response, depending on where it occurs, you’re definitely going to get a large fire presence. The fire department has a dive team. Or the police department has dive teams."
Zavadsky also noted a concerning increase in drowning calls they have gotten this year.
"Just in the month of May this year, we’ve responded to seven drowning cases. Last May, May 2021...we only had one," he said. "Drowning is a very silent event. If you’re not watching for someone going under the water and going back out, it can go unnoticed."
According to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office, the report for Molina's death remains incomplete as of Tuesday.
