Search crews returned to the Passaic River Thursday morning for a missing 10-year-old girl after three children fell into the water Wednesday night. A 10-year-old boy was recovered dead around 10 p.m., while Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said the other child in the group, an 11-year-old girl, got out on her own.
The first reports came around 6:21 p.m., when officials were told children had gone into the river near the off-ramp in Pulaski Park. Lora said the operation had shifted into a recovery mission after the boy was found and the girl still had not been located.
Hector Lora on the children
Lora said the 11-year-old was back with her mother and worried about her brother and the friend who had been with them. He said the boy may have saved his sister’s life. “As he was going under, he pushed her and she ended up by the rocks, so she climbed out,” Lora said.
That account is the clearest explanation yet for why one child got out while two others stayed in the water. It also leaves one point unresolved: how the three children entered the Passaic River near Pulaski Park in the first place.
Pulaski Park timeline
A man in the park jumped into the water to try to save the children, but the current pushed him away before he could reach them. By the time the boy’s body was recovered around 10 p.m., crews still had one child to find and had resumed the search Thursday morning.
For the family, the immediate reality is divided between safety and loss. The 11-year-old is with her mother, the boy was taken from the river dead, and the search for the missing 10-year-old girl remained active Thursday morning.
