GALVESTON, Texas — A second body was recovered Thursday in the search for twin brothers who went missing Sunday evening in the water near Pleasure Pier in Galveston, according to officials.
According to Galveston Island Beach Patrol officials, the second body was recovered around 1 a.m. Thursday near 47th and Seawall Boulevard.
Galveston Island Beach Patrol Lt. Austin Kirwin said he was found by someone walking by about 10 feet from the shoreline. That person called 911.
Galveston Beach Patrol, EMS, police, and firefighters responded to the scene and confirmed the young boy matched the description of the remaining missing twin.
His family has been notified, officials said.
“The story for me and my staff has been very difficult, cause it’s this American dream story,” Chief Peter Davis said Thursday morning. “The family came from Honduras, they worked for a couple of years to prepare. (They) were able to bring the twins up from Honduras, just recently. (They) went to the beach, and the twins died on the water.”
The chief also said that the incident is tragic since it happened the weekend before they start staffing lifeguards in lifeguard towers.
“There is nothing as effective as a lifeguard in a tower, keeping people away from those piers, jetties, where we always have rip currents,” he said.
He said they believe the drowning happened just on the west side of Pleasure Pier, which is a strong rip current.
Early Tuesday, four people found a body near the shoreline, brought it to the sand and called 911.
Authorities determined that it was one of the twin's bodies by what he was wearing and how he looked before notifying the family.
"It is some closure. We are keeping close ties and talking to the family, so we’re talking to them directly,” Kirwin said.
Family members identified the missing boys as Jefferson and Josue Perez, who are both 13. It's not clear which boy was found.
What happened
Officials said the teens went missing around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Their family members spent about an hour searching for them before calling the police around 5:30 p.m. The mother of the boys said they couldn't swim.
"They were out in the water. The parents briefly lost sight of them and they looked back up into the area and they did not see them," Kirwin said.
The boys' parents said when they last saw them, the boys were in waist-to-chest-high water about 20 yards out on the west side of the pier.
The teens were last seen near Seawall Boulevard and 25th Street. Officials said no one reported seeing them go underwater.
The United States Coast Guard used helicopters to help search crews. Several other law enforcement agencies also helped with the search efforts.
Since there was some dense fog in the area, the Coast Guard had to stop searching with its chopper on Monday. At sunset Monday, the Galveston Police Department took over the search into Tuesday morning.
Family members said the boys had been begging to go to the beach. They said they had just moved to Houston from Honduras last November to join their mother who moved to the Houston area about 10 years ago.
Here's a map of the area: