Body Of Missing 15-Year-Old Swimmer Found Off Rockaway Beach

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Search and recovery divers found the body of a teenager who drowned off Rockaway Beach on Monday afternoon.

Friends and relatives say 15-year-old Maintain Odozi was swimming near Beach 88th Street late Sunday afternoon when he began to struggle.

Those with him in the water say they tried to save him, but they got tired themselves and had to let him go.

"All night, the body, the hand just slipping from mine. That's all that's been really going through my mind," Jonathan Pender said.

"He was struggling. Maintain had one hand out. He was trying to get us to help him, but he was going too far out," Andre Williams said.

There is no swimming allowed in the area where the teenager went under.

Just last week, an 18-year-old drowned not far from that area.

In:
• Queens
• Rockaway Beach
• New York