Posted on Mon, Jul. 6, 2009
A boy who drowned in the Delaware River Friday night, along with the man who tried to save him, had been properly fitted with a life jacket just hours before.
The moment was captured by a 6ABC videographer, filming a July 4 feature story, and shown on television.
"Sometimes, it's not real comfortable," a boat inspector says on camera to 11-year-old Raniel Molina as she tightens his life-vest straps. "But you want to make sure it fits nice and snug so it keeps you safe."
But by 8:40 p.m., Molina had taken off his life vest and was in the water near the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, hanging onto the side of a 16-foot pleasure craft, when he became separated from the boat and drifted away, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Crystalynn Kneen said.
One of the men on board, family friend Hector Rosa, jumped in to save Molina, but the distance between them and the boat only widened, police said.
The owner and operator of the boat had trouble starting the craft, and by the time he got it running and turned around, he'd lost sight of Rosa and Molina, Kneen said.
Search teams were sent out, but it wasn't until Saturday that Rosa's body was discovered, about 200 feet from where he had jumped overboard to save the boy, by the Police Marine Unit. Rosa, 43, was from Boudinot Street near Indiana Avenue, in Kensington, police said.Philadelphia Marine Police confirmed that the boy's body was recovered at 2:30 p.m. yesterday near the Frankford Arsenal. *
Staff writer St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report.
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