Bodies of 2 drowning victims recovered from New Jersey lake
By Derick Waller
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MINE HILL, New Jersey (WABC) — Authorities in New Jersey have recovered the bodies of two swimmers who drowned at Mine Hill Beach on Sunset Lake in Morris County.
The victims, a 17-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man, were last seen just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, when they went into the water and didn’t come out.
Witnesses told police they saw the pair enter from sand pits on the west side of the lake.
EMS crews arrived in the parking lot on the other side of the lake and sprung into action.
But the lake is mucky and dangerous, making the rescue effort incredibly difficult.
“It’s green,” area resident Dave Elsholz told Eyewitness News. “You don’t see it, but there’s stuff coming up from the bottom. You can get entangled in it – stuck in it, like seaweed.”
Police say that tangled vegetation below is why it took divers hours to recover the bodies of the victims.
They finally recovered one body, then the other. The victims have not yet been identified.
“It’s pretty bad,” said Elsholz, who lives in nearby Kenvil. “There’s signs there. I don’t know who they were or what they were doing, but it’s a shame.”
Elsholz says over the years Mine Hill Beach has not exactly been well maintained.
“I wouldn’t even take my dog there,” Elsholz said. “I mean years ago we might have, but not now.”
That’s why posted signs warn there’s no swimming allowed.
The small beach section remains closed, and the approach is muddy, with weeds growing below the surface.
Tuesdays drownings were the latest in a string of water-related tragedies in the Tri-State area.
Nine people have drowned in the last ten days alone in New Jersey locations, including the following:
On Monday, June 6, a man drowned while swimming in a lake in Manchester, Ocean County.
The following Tuesday and Wednesday, two people drowned in Wildwood, Cape May County.
In Bayonne, Hudson County, two brothers drowned at a school swimming pool in Wednesday night.
On Monday, a 24-year-old man drowned while swimming in the ocean in Belmar, Monmouth County.
Monday night, a 59-year-old woman went missing while swimming off Island Beach State Park in Ocean County. Her body was recovered on Tuesday.
And now comes this latest tragedy involving a man and a teenage boy at Mine Hill Beach.
Experts continue to remind anyone who wants to swim as the weather gets warmer, that you should never get in the water when a lifeguard is not on duty.
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