Waves drag away Voorhees teen off Seaside Heights

The same choppy waves that seized a 16-year-old Voorhees boy Wednesday in Seaside Heights brought the search for him to a premature halt yesterday.

Sal Roberts, 16, and a friend were waist-deep in the ocean near Hamilton Avenue around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Richard Mingoia, president of Youth Consultation Service, a New Jersey nonprofit that benefits at-risk youth.

"They were basically standing in the water, jumping around. You know, what kids do," Mingoia said.

The two were among seven boys, ages 15 to 17, on an end-of-the-summer outing with a supervisor and two resident assistants from the group's Somerdale office, Mingoia said. Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman said that Roberts lives in Voorhees in a group home maintained by the organization.

Suddenly, a large wave dragged Roberts' friend away from the shoreline, Mingoia said. "The other boy was in trouble and Sal tried to help," he said.

Korman said a lifeguard managed to save Roberts' friend. Korman was unsure if either boy knew how to swim.

"Everybody is devastated," Mingoia said. "It's the worst thing that can happen."

Lifeguards converged on the area and formed a human chain in the ocean to look for Roberts. State and local police responded and three Coast Guard crews reported combing 29 square miles of ocean, but by 7:45 p.m. the search was suspended.

Roberts' parents arrived Wednesday night in Seaside Heights, Korman said. They remained there yesterday, he said.

Yesterday, the state police marine unit ended its search around noon because the conditions were too treacherous for the boats, State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos said.

The helicopter unit shut down after about an hour, unable to see anything due to the choppy water, he said. Dive teams and sonar devices were not used yesterday.

"The swells were too much," Castellanos said. "They're going to try again tomorrow."

This is the last week that the Ocean County resort will have a full lifeguard staff, Seaside Heights Beach Patrol Lt. Doug Parise said. After Labor Day, the squad is down to a "skeleton crew," he said.

Parise said Wednesday's surf was "choppy with some rip currents" but not out of the ordinary. At the time of the incident, one of the lifeguards was on lunch break, leaving the other one alone on the stand.

In his 28 years in Seaside Heights, Parise said, he knew of no drowning that had occurred with a lifeguard on duty. He said the lifeguard had seen a grief counselor from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

"Obviously, it's a very somber, sad day," he said.