A body was found shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday morning in the search for a 14-year-old Southern Wayne High School student who went missing on Thursday near North Topsail Beach.
Numerous agencies responded as a body washed up near Camp Lejeune around 9:45 on Sunday morning.
Sunday marked the fourth day the North Topsail Beach Police Department and Fire Department, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, and Camp Lejeune searched for Mainor Perez, who went missing on Thursday morning while fishing with his brother Yunior in the New River Inlet.
Yunior, 26, told Goldsborodailynews.com on Sunday that the body found near Camp Lejeune has yet to be identified, but his family had provided DNA to help in the process. The Perez family will also await the results of an autopsy on the body that was discovered.
Goldsborodailynews.com reached out to North Topsail Beach Police Chief William Younginer on Sunday and is awaiting a response.
“They found a body but it’s not been confirmed that it’s (Mainor),” Yunior said. “My family, they are devestated for the loss of my little brother.”
A GoFundMe has been created to assist the Perez family.
Yunior and Mainor were fishing in the New River Inlet on Thursday around 11 a.m. when Mainor was swept away. According to WRAL.com, witnesses reported that passengers in a nearby boat were able to pull Yunior into the boat.
“On Thursday, we were just enjoying the day on the Fourth of July,” Yunior said. “Most of the time we go to Wilmington, but we decided to come to a different area for a different experience, but it just went terribly wrong. The water wasn’t too deep, but someone explained to me later there are holes like 30 feet deep, and I think that’s what happened, (Mainor) slipped in and he couldn’t get out. The current was going in and not going out.”
Chief Younginer described the area where Yunior and Mainor were fishing as similar in location to where a 17-year-old boy went missing last summer. Despite warning signs in the area in both English and Spanish, the location still presents a risk.
“There’s a shelf that you can walk out on, and it’s been dredged recently, but if you step off that shelf, you’re in 30 feet of water,” Chief Younginer said. “We ride by there pretty often and warn people fishing, and warn parents that there’s a drop off. It’s close to the same area where a 17-year-old who was using a cast net went missing last summer. He floated up on the third day.”
Yunior described his brother as someone who never turns down an opportunity to help those in need, and who already had his sights set on his future after high school.
“He used to help a lot, he never refused for any favor,” Yunior said. “You could ask him for anything, he would always help you out. He was that type of person. Most of our family, we are like that, if we can help, we help everybody. Me and my brother, we had the best relationship. I started a construction company about six months ago, and he was helping me with that. He was already planning on attending Wayne Community College and then transferring to UNC Chapel Hill.”
