Jul 18, 2008 11:57 pm US/Eastern
Girl, 16, Lost In Water Off Rockaway Park
Teens Apparently Hit By Wave, 1 Rescued; Massive Search Involving NYPD, FDNY, Coast Guard Suspended
ROCKAWAY PARK, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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The NYPD, FDNY and Coast Guard searched frantically on July 18 for a 16-year-old girl who went missing off of a Queens beach. They never found her.
CBS
A teenager's beach outing with friends turned tragic on Friday. The 16-year-old is missing at sea off of Rockaway Beach and presumed dead.
The search was an "all hands on deck" operation, a race against time by sea, by air and along a beach packed with people. The search has since been suspended. It will resume Saturday as a recovery operation.
"I'm gonna be devastated," friend Milver Rivera said.
Rivera said he met the missing 16-year-old named Tiara on Friday before she went in to sea around 3 p.m. with a friend then disappeared.
"She's magnificent. She's a perfect person. She was so innocent," Rivera send.
He and other witnesses say the girl was swimming with another 16-year-old, Carla Armaza, when a wave hit them. Armaza was rescued and she immediately screamed the awful truth that her friend was nowhere to be seen. The search for the missing teen intensified. Fire Department divers made several attempts. Police and Coast Guard boats and aircraft combed five miles of ocean.
"I saw FDNY coming with all their stuff then they left with all their stuff which told me they didn't find what they were looking for," witness Rosemary Vargas said.
Regular swimmers talked about dangers that are often underestimated.
"They'll go in thinking no big deal, happy go lucky, but it's not," Rockaway Park resident Bryan McGuire said. "There are drop offs. The undertow is extremely severe. The rip tides are extremely severe."
Added resident Anthony Biz: "(You can) get caught out there, get caught in a rip and don't know how to get out of a rip."
Expected to make a full recovery is survivor Armaza, who was brought to Peninsula Hospital. Police gave her worried friends rides to their homes in Queens.
At the height of the search, three police helicopters, a police boat, four fire boats and a scuba crew were on the scene.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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