The bodies of twin teenage brothers who drowned while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston on Sunday have been recovered.
According to reports from NBC and Telemundo stations in Houston, 13-year-old twins Jefferson and Josué Perez were swimming in chest-deep water in the Gulf of Mexico at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday when they apparently got caught in a rip current near the Pleasure Pier and drowned.
The boys were about 20 yards away from a no-swimming area where dangerous rip currents were known to occur. Police told KPRC-TV that one of the teens did not know how to swim well.
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One of the boys' bodies was recovered a few blocks from the Pleasure Pier at about 2 a.m. Tuesday. The second twin was found Thursday by a passerby who spotted him about 10 feet from shore.
Telemundo Houston reported the boys moved to Texas from Honduras last November to live with their parents who had moved to Houston about a decade earlier.
"The story for me and for my staff has been very difficult because it's this American dream story," said Peter Davis, chief of Galveston Island Beach Patrol. "The family came from Honduras, the husband and wife. They worked for a couple of years to prepare and they were able to bring the twins up from Honduras, just recently, a couple of months ago."
Relatives were watching the boys as they swam but no one saw them go underwater and the family assumed after they disappeared from sight that they were walking on the beach, Telemundo reported. Family members notified police they were missing about an hour after they disappeared.
KPRC-TV reported the Coast Guard and Galveston Island Beach Patrol searched the area along with Galveston police, fire, and EMS workers.
Funeral arrangements for the boys have not yet been confirmed.
