Pinellas deputies have recovered the body of a 17-year-old swimmer who went missing off Indian Shores on Wednesday.
Deputies found William Zhang dead at about 5:23 p.m. Wednesday, according to a news release issued by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office late Wednesday night.
The release did not provide details about where Zhang’s body was located.
Zhang was visiting Florida from Quebec, Canada with his swim team for a swim camp and was conducting drills with several other team members in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday morning, the release said. When the drills were over, Zhang did not return to shore.
According to information previously released by the sheriff’s office, deputies responded about 9 a.m. after a 911 caller reported that a swimmer had been carried offshore on the 19500 block of Gulf Boulevard.
The sheriff’s office began a search along with Indian Shores Police Department, Pinellas Suncoast Fire Rescue, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the United States Coast Guard.
Deputies with the sheriff’s office’s Underwater Search and Recovery Team found Zhang dead. Deputies said his death does not appear suspicious.
Zhang’s swim coaches told deputies that they checked for riptides or hazards before the swimmers entered the water, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rick Ross told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday that he was watching a group of about 10 boys and girls practicing in the powerful current of the Gulf of Mexico outside his fiancee’s home when he saw a girl running across the beach waving down the team’s chaperone. The girl stopped and asked Ross for the address and said there was a boy still in the water.
Ross, 65, said he saw a boy’s head bobbing in the water about 200 yards from shore. He watched as a first responder on a surfboard paddled after the boy, who then disappeared.
“I saw the guy on the surfboard just sitting up. They lost him,” Ross said. “That’s when – probably a teenager – he went under, and they’ve been out ever since looking for him in force.”
The Pinellas County 911 active calls web page showed that at one point Wednesday morning more than two dozen units were at or on the way to the scene. At least two helicopters were circling the area and several boats were in the water just offshore
