New Jersey

Officials Find Body of Missing Swimmer in Delaware River in Burlington

Officials found the body of a swimmer who went missing in the Delaware River.

Officials say the unidentified man was reported missing in the Delaware River near York Street in Burlington City, New Jersey at 7:14 p.m. Sunday.

Witnesses told NBC10 two men and a woman were walking along the waterfront ledge and then jumped over the railing to swim across the river to Burlington Island where an abandoned amusement park is located.

"They got on the ledge and all three of them jumped in, one after the other," said Chris Ventriello.

As the swimmers got to the halfway point, one of the men, who is in his 20's, started to struggle.

"He went down once, came back up and went down a second time," said Miles Smith. "That was the last time we saw him." 

Witnesses say several people on the shore tried to help but the man disappeared.

"They jumped in the water and threw life preservers," Ventriello said. "The one gentleman that jumped in actually had his hands on him for a second. But he couldn't get him."

State police and local dive teams later found the man's body around 9 p.m. He has not yet been identified.

Burlington City officials issued an executive order banning people from going to Burlington island though people often still swim across.

"It's deep and it's narrow and those currents can go up, down, left or right," said Burlington Mayor James Fazzone. "We don't want anyone on the island and that's been in effect for awhile."

This is the third incident in which a swimmer has gone missing in the Delaware River in the past two days. Sunday morning a 22-year-old Virginia man went missing while swimming in the river in Bristol, Bucks County.

On Saturday a 41-year-old man died after he tried to swim across the Delaware River in Pike County.

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