Search continues for teen missing in Neuse River

Posted to: News North Carolina

DATABASE:
Drowning deaths in Norfolk, Virginia Beach since 1998

By Shawn Day
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 6, 2009

ORIENTAL, N.C.

Pamlico County Emergency Management officials continued to search today for a teenager who went missing while swimming in the Neuse River near Oriental.

The missing teen has been identified as Anthony Michael Badger, 17, of Oriental, N.C.

The Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Pamlico County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the search effort yesterday; today it was turned over to the EMS unit.

The county’s 911 center notified the Coast Guard at 6:30 a.m. Sunday that three teenagers had taken a jet ski on the river. Two of the three wore life jackets while swimming, according to a news release from the Coast Guard, and the teen without the life jacket began to struggle.

He slipped beneath the surface before his friends could get a life jacket to him, the release said.

Virginian-Pilot staff writer Jeff Hampton contributed to this report.

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