Published on June 5 | Last updated on June 8
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The body of a 31-year-old swimmer who went missing in the Delaware River in Northeast Philadelphia last week was found in Burlington County Monday afternoon.
Just before 1 p.m. Monday, New Jersey troopers responded to reports of a dead man who washed up on the river line in Palmyra Township, Burlington County. They said he matched the description of the missing swimmer: 31-year-old Carlos Gil-Reyes, of New York.
The incident is still under investigation.
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It was around 1 a.m. on Friday when a group of about 20 people met up in the area of Pleasant Hill Park on Linden Avenue in Torresdale.
They got onto four boats and went out onto the Delaware River, police said. At some point, two people in the group, including 31-year-old Carlos Gil-Reyes, jumped into the water to swim.
“They were swimming far out; they were a little tipsy, they were getting some drinks in the boat,” Argeni Infante Reyes, a friend of Gil-Reyes, said to reporters. “He swam out of the boat with my other friend. The last word he told my friend, ‘Hey, I can’t no more. I love you.’”
The Coast Guard said one person was safely rescued from the water by a nearby boat.
Gil-Reyes went under, and that was the last time he was seen.
Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, Philadelphia police and fire departments started to search early Friday morning. There were boats in the water and a helicopter in the air as part of the effort to find the man. After searching for hours, crews shifted from a rescue to a recovery operation.
