MILTON, DE - Numerous first responders and agencies were on the scene of a water search and rescue operation in Milton on Tuesday evening.
The search was launched on Oyster Rocks Road on July 15th. Officials from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control told WBOC that a 18-year-old man went into the Broadkill River but did not return to shore.
Delaware State Police later identified the man as Yorch Niz-Chilel. Niz-Chilel was crabbing with his family near a boat launch at the end of Oyster Rocks Road when he entered the river up to his neck, according to police. Invvestigators say he then began yelling for help, but his family was unable to reach him before he went under and drifted away.
DNREC says "multiple marine police vessels from the NRP Fish and Wildlife Unit searched the river throughout the afternoon into early evening". The US Coast Guard in Cape May, New Jersey was assisting in aerial search support and the USCG Lewes Station also has dispatched a vessel into the area.
On Wednesday night, the Delaware State Police announced that the body of Niz-Chilel was positively identified and recovered near the Outer Wall of the Delaware Bay after a fishermen called 911 after spotting a body close to the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse.
Niz-Chilel's body was turned over to the Division of Forensic Science for further examination, according to police.
This search and recovery was not related to another missing man who was recovered from the waters off of Cape Henlopen State Park on Wednesday. That search had begun after a swimmer went missing on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach.