Alex DaLomba Tavares was with his girlfriend when the rip current took him by surprise
SAN JUAN — The body of a Massachusetts man who was swept away by the current at a waterfall in Puerto Rico on Wednesday has been found, according to the authorities.
Rescuers and emergency teams were searching for 28-year-old Alex DaLomba Tavares of New Bedford after he was swept away at the Gozalandia waterfall in the Municipality of San Sebastián.
Daniel Cabrero Núñez, interim director of the Emergency Management Center in San Sebastián told NBC10 Boston that one of the agency’s rescuers, Dylan Herreira, saw a hand in the middle of the brush and, after recovering the body, he was identified by the victim’s girlfriend.
“We started the search at 6 a.m. and around 11:40 a.m., he saw a hand,” Cabrero Núñez said. “When he removed the green areas and vegetative material, the body was buried with sand and sediment”.
DaLomba Tavares arrived in Puerto Rico on May 3 with his girlfriend to spend a few days on vacation.
Family members told NBC10 Boston that DaLomba Tavares was with his girlfriend and a couple from Florida in the water, when the current took him by surprise.
“The water came down rushing very rapidly and she told us that he was holding onto a rock and told her to go get help that he would be fine by the time she got help and came back up he was already gone,” Edenilson Semedo, DaLomba Tavares’ brother, said.
The Florida couple was able to be rescued and his girlfriend managed to get out in time, but DaLomba Tavares was nowhere to be found. The family now has closure, but that doesn’t lessen the grief.
“I just wanted him to come home and give him a big hug, and just tell him that we love him you know he was a great kid he was just a great kid he didn’t bother nobody,” his cousin Sandy Duarte said.
By AIXA SEPULVEDA and JENNIFER SANGUANO/NBC News
