Second girl dies after being pulled from ocean

A second girl who was pulled from choppy surf in Belmar, N.J., on Thursday has died.

Emily Gonzalez-Perez, 12, had been on life support at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune since she and her cousin Mitzi Hernandez-Nicholas, 13, were pulled out to sea. The younger girl died Monday afternoon, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Hernandez-Nicholas, 13, died Thursday. The two went missing in the area of Ninth and Tenth Avenues about 6 p.m. Police were able to pull Gonzalez-Perez from the surf and perform CPR before she was rushed to the hospital. Lifeguards were not scheduled to be on the beach.

The second death raised the number of drownings at the Shore this month to three, with one swimmer still missing.

The other two swimmers were also pulled out to sea on Thursday, about 7 p.m. in Atlantic City. The body of Kaliyah Hand, 16, was recovered in Margate on Monday.   Ramon Quinn, 15, of Pleasantville, N.J., is missing.

Gonzalez-Perez and Hernandez-Nicholas were students at Belmar Elementary School, the Press reported. A GoFundMe account that had been set up to defray expenses has more than doubled the $20,000 goal.

"I have received requests from people who want to help those families, and it really speaks volumes about the character and compassion of people who have been touched by the death of this child and the condition of the other child," Mayor Matt Doherty said earlier. "In Belmar, we do take care of our own."