Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Aug 1

Passaic Crews Recover 10-Year-Old Girl's Body After 2-Day Search Near Market Street Bridge

Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Aug 1

Passaic Crews Recover 10-Year-Old Girl's Body After 2-Day Search Near Market Street Bridge

Q: What led three children into the raging Passaic River, and could a young boy's final act of sacrifice have saved his missing sister?

Authorities have not yet determined exactly why the three children entered the Passaic River. What officials say is that the children were near the riverbank ramp or boat launch by Dundee Island Park/Pulaski Park on Wednesday evening when they somehow ended up in the water. Investigators have not confirmed whether they slipped, fell, or went in intentionally. The river was especially dangerous at the time. Recent storms had raised water levels and strengthened the current, and officials said the children were quickly pulled into deeper, fast-moving water. Bystanders saw them struggling and called 911 around 6:20 p.m. A man at the park tried to reach them but was forced back by the depth and current. There is credible evidence that the boy may have saved his sister. Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said the surviving girl, identified in reports as the boy’s 11-year-old sister, told him her brother pushed or lifted her toward rocks near the bank as they struggled. That allowed her to climb out and return safely to her mother. The mayor described it as a possible final act of sacrifice, but officials have not independently verified every detail of those final moments. So the clearest answer is that the cause of the children entering the river remains under investigation, while the account from the surviving sister strongly suggests the 10-year-old boy may have helped save her before he was swept away. The search for the missing 10-year-old girl continued amid difficult conditions.

Q: Will advanced drone and sonar technology overcome the treacherous storm currents to finally uncover the missing 10-year-old girl's ultimate fate?

Advanced drones and sonar may help locate the missing girl, but they cannot overcome the river’s dangers or guarantee a quick answer. Officials in Passaic said the operation had already shifted from rescue to recovery as time passed. Crews from multiple agencies were using boats, divers, sonar and, in some reports, drones to search an expanded stretch of the Passaic River. There was at least one reported sonar hit under a bridge, but as of the latest updates, it had not led to her recovery. The main obstacle is not a lack of technology but the river itself. Recent storms left the Passaic swollen, fast-moving and murky, with high water, flooding, darkness and debris all slowing divers and reducing visibility. Sonar can identify shapes underwater, and drones can scan banks and surface areas more efficiently than ground crews alone, but both tools are limited by turbulent current, depth, underwater clutter and the possibility that the girl was carried downstream. So the most realistic answer is that the technology improves the odds of finding her, especially in a recovery search, but it does not ensure rescuers can “finally” determine her fate on any fixed timeline. Authorities have said they will continue the operation as long as necessary, and for now the outcome remained unconfirmed in the latest reporting.

Q: How did the recent tragic loss of their father compound the family's unimaginable ordeal during this deadly New Jersey river incident?

The family’s ordeal was compounded because the children’s mother and siblings were already grieving the recent death of the children’s father when this river tragedy struck. Mayor Hector Lora said the family was enduring “immense grief” not only from the boy’s death and the search for the missing girl, but also from that fresh bereavement. In practical terms, it meant the mother was facing another devastating crisis while still coping with the father’s loss, and the surviving children were experiencing a second major trauma in a short span of time. That context helps explain officials’ repeated emphasis on the family’s overwhelming pain and the community’s efforts to support them during the rescue and recovery operation.

3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Aug 1

Just before 7 p.m. ET Friday, crews recovered the 10-year-old girl's body about 100 feet from the Market Street Bridge in Wallington after a couple spotted her in the Passaic River and called 911.
Nearly nine miles of river had been searched since Wednesday evening with boats, sonar, drones and cadaver dogs after three children were swept in near a boat ramp at Pulaski Park.
The search had been close to ending for the night when the sighting came in; Mayor Hector Lora said the fast current could have carried the body toward Newark Bay and made recovery far harder.
The recovery confirmed the deaths of both missing 10-year-olds from Garfield after an 11-year-old girl escaped the river on her own Wednesday, giving the family a measure of closure.