A 24-year-old Texas man who went missing while swimming at a North Carolina beach was found dead days later on the shores of Camp Lejeune, officials said.
The man, identified as Moses Muchai, was found on August 1, four days after he disappeared while swimming with his 12-year-old brother, according to North Topsail Beach Police Chief William Younginer.
The brothers had walked out onto a sandbar near the New River Inlet at North Topsail Beach on the afternoon of July 29 to look at a shrimp boat that was in the water, McClatchy News previously reported.
North Topsail Beach is about 140 miles southeast of Raleigh.
Their uncle, Christopher Githire, told WWAY that family members started looking for the brothers when they hadn’t returned before dinnertime.
A woman on the beach told Githire that she had seen them heading toward the shrimp boat. When he looked out over the water, he saw them trying to swim back to shore as the tide rose, causing the sandbar to disappear, according to the station.
Rescue crews from the North Topsail Fire Department responded just after 4:30 p.m. and pulled the 12-year-old boy to safety within 8 minutes, according to Younginer. The boy was uninjured.
But Muchai went under the surface, and rescuers were not able to find him.
Responders began searching for Muchai and continued until his body was found at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in Jacksonville.
Officials conducted an autopsy and identified Muchai, Younginer said. His family was notified.
A man who said he graduated in the same class as Muchai wrote on Facebook that that he was a “very kind soul.”
“… he was the most kindhearted and loving kid you’d ever meet,” Jeremy Alexander wrote. “Hug your loved ones a little tighter today, my deepest condolences to the family.”
Another man drowned in the same area in early July.
The man was swept out to sea by a current off the shores of North Topsail Beach after he rescued a child caught in a rip current, according to WITN.
Residents told WPDE that the area is notoriously dangerous for swimmers.
“You get caught in the tidal flow out here, you’re a lost soul,” Don Doutt told the outlet.
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