The twin 13-year-old boys vanished Sunday while wading in Gulf waters near a pier in Galveston, Texas, authorities said.
The second body of missing 13-year-old twins was discovered Thursday in Texas, near a Galveston pier where the boys went under while playing in the Gulf waters, authorities said.
One body was found early Tuesday after four people saw the remains near the shoreline and called 911, police said. Thursday's sad sighting was also reported to 911 by someone walking on the beach.
The boys had recently arrived from their native Honduras, where they had stayed while their parents journeyed to Texas to find work and a new home for the family, authorities said.
“The story for me and my staff has been very difficult, cause it’s this American dream story,” Galveston Island Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis said Thursday morning. “The family came from Honduras, they work for a couple of years to prepare, were able to bring the twins up from Honduras, just recently ... went to the beach, and the twins died on the water.”
The twins had been wading in waist-to-chest-high water when they were caught by a rip tide and pulled underwater near Pleasure Pier, authorities said. The brothers did not know how to swim, their parents said.
The family identified the boys as Jefferson and Josue Perez.
Officials said the teens went missing around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. After an hour of searching, the family called police. The mother told police her boys had been begging to visit the beach.
The tragedy occurred just days before lifeguards are scheduled to begin staffing the beach.
"There is nothing as effective as a lifeguard in a tower, keeping people away from those piers, jetties, where we always have rip currents,” Davis said Thursday.
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