13-Year-Old Drowns After Getting Caught in Rip Current

The boy's body was discovered on a shoreline on Thursday

A 13-year-old boy from Mexico drowned in Imperial Beach earlier this month after getting caught in a rip current and being swept out to sea, the county medical examiner’s office confirmed.

According to a report released Friday by the medical examiner, the boy was swimming in the ocean off Playas de Tijuana on Jul. 15 when he became caught in a rip current.

The rip current pulled him out to sea and efforts to rescue him were unsuccessful.

On Thursday -- 10 days after the incident -- the teen’s body was found by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife officers on the shoreline at the Monument State Park Beach, about a quarter-mile south of the Tijuana River mouth, the report said.

Deputies and the medical examiner were then called to the scene.

The boy’s official cause of death was determined to be accidental drowning. His name was not released.

According to the report, the boy had been swimming with one other person when the rip current took hold of him. It appears that second person survived, though further details regarding that swimmer were not immediately available.
 

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