Body Found on Beach May Be That of Missing Teenager

A body that washed up on Rockaway Beach yesterday may be that of Tiara Coaxum, a 16-year-old girl from Jamaica, Queens, who was pulled under while swimming with a friend on Friday.

The body of an African-American teenage girl was discovered on the shoreline, having washed up from under the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, on Beach 169th Street and Rockaway Point about five minutes after noon, officials said.

The police have not yet identified the girl, but they presumed the cause of death was drowning. Officials from the medical examiner's office said they would have an identity and confirm cause of death sometime today.

The Coast Guard was deployed to search for Ms. Coaxum after she went under in a riptide Friday afternoon. But neither the rescue nor recovery mission the next day turned up any evidence of Ms. Coaxum, who had been in the water near Beach 116th Street with 16-year-old Karla Armaza, who also went under in the waves and nearly drowned.

If suspicions are confirmed, this would be the first drowning incident on a city beach this summer.