Josue and Jefferson Perez: Body found in search for missing twins, 13, who vanished while swimming
GALVESTON, TEXAS: In a heartbreaking update on 13-year-old missing twins Josue and Jefferson Perez, a body that meets one of the child's descriptions has been discovered. Josue and Jefferson Perez, who are from Honduras but were living in Houston, had traveled to Galveston to spend a day at the beach on Sunday, March 5. Things became awry when their parents suddenly lost sight of the boys who were wading in the chest-deep water near the Pleasure Pier, around 20 yards from the shore.
Despite Galveston search and rescue teams' effort to search for the twins "all day" they reportedly went missing for two days. However, their desperate search came to an end after a beach walker discovered one of the boy's bodies on Tuesday at 2 am, said Galveston Beach Police Lieutenant Austin Kirwin. He explained that the other twin could be found one block or even three miles down the beach due to the east-to-west slow current, reported Click2Houston.
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What happened to Josue and Jefferson Perez?
Lt Austin Kirwin, of Galveston Island Beach Patrol, spoke of the tragedy and said, “They were out in the water.” “The parents briefly lost sight of them and they looked back up into the area and they did not see them,” he said. It is unclear what happened to the boys after they were seen in “chest-deep” or “waist-deep water" at Galveston Island Beach. The Galveston County Community Emergency Response Team, Beach Patrol, the US Coast Guard, and others on Sunday were battered by horrifying weather conditions.
Galveston Beach Patrol Chief Peter Lewis said his team was searching for the twins "all day" since their disappearance on Sunday night. “Today, we are doing shoreline searches,” Davis said Monday. “We’re dropping a Jet Ski in the water to check near all the rocks and the jetties. We have a little bit of a current, so we’re concentrating on the west. We’re going to search all day.”
'It’s about 67°!'
Kirwin said, "The real limiting factor for us right now is this fog rolling in. That’s going to inhibit us from being able to search as well as we want to," according to Mirror. "Also, the water is still relatively cold. It’s about 67° this morning, so without a wetsuit, the length of time you can be in that water is diminished." He also advised patrons on the beach to remain calm if they ever get caught in a rip current.
Kirwin added, "You never know what the beach can do. It’s not a pool. It’s not safe water, even if it looks like it is. So always swim with a buddy and know how to swim," reported the source. "In the event that you do get caught in a rip current, the key point is, do not panic. If you just relax and try to keep your calm the current will eventually bring you back to shore. The main killer in drownings is that panic mode," he added.