Body Pulled From Lake Where Teens Fell Through Ice

Dive teams re-launched the search of a frozen New Jersey lake.

ByABC News
January 8, 2013, 7:02 AM

Jan. 8, 2013 — -- Officials pulled a body from the partially frozen New Jersey lake this afternoon where two teenagers hadfallen through the ice less than 24 hours before.

Dive teams relaunched the search of Budd Lake in Mount Olive Township in Morris County this morning for the two missing teens who fell through the ice Monday night. Officials said this morning that the search had became a body-recovery effort instead of a rescue attempt.

The body was pulled from the lake by recovery crews just before 1 p.m. today, WABC-TV reported.

It had yet to be identified.

Police said the two teens fell through the ice at the lake in Morris County. The search was called off Monday night at 9:30. Police believe the teenagers fell through the ice at around 6:19 p.m., WABC-TV reported.

The Morris County prosecutor's office this morning said New Jersey state police had an airboat with divers on the lake in an effort to facilitate the recovery mission.

A man sitting on his porch along the shore of Budd Lake Monday evening said he heard calls for help from the partially frozen lake. He said that he walked toward a light, which might have been a cellphone. The man said that he heard two people saying they did not want to die, WABC reported.

The voices, and the light, eventually disappeared.

WABC identified one of the missing teens as 15-year-old Clyde Schimanski III. His father said that, according to witnesses, his son might have died making his own rescue attempt.

"Clyde was out there, and he seen the kid go through the ice," Clyde Schimanski Jr. said. "And Clyde went to save him on his bicycle. And then they both went in. And then people on the shore heard them screaming. He was a very good child. I'm going to miss him a lot."

Mount Olive Mayor Rob Greenbaum indicated in a post on his Facebook page Monday night that the two teenagers were dead.

"I am sad to report that we likely lost two young adults in Mount Olive this evening. May God bless their families and help ease their pain," he wrote.

The incident at Budd Lake is the latest in a winter that has seen numerous accidents on lakes across the United States. Earlier in the day Monday, halfway across the country in Wisconsin, eight fishermen had to be rescued from an icy floe in the bay of Green Bay when high winds caused the ice to break free.

On Sunday, a woman was caught on camera clinging to the ice on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. She floated in the bone-chilling waters for an hour before first responders pulled her to safety.

Experts say unseasonably warm temperatures have caused a January thaw from coast to coast, leaving usually thick ice dangerously thin.

In December, a sledding excursion on a Wrightwood, Calif., lake went wrong, causing one man to fall and leading to a chain reaction. Nine minutes later, nearly a dozen people were pulled out of the water. All were unharmed.

"If you fall through the ice, a life jacket will keep you afloat and reduce the hypothermia affects," Paul Segura of the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Still, experts say cold water kills quickly, making these situations not only dangerous, but often deadly.