Curtis Newkirk Obituary – Cause of Death: In loving memory of missing 19-year-old swimmer found off Jacksonville Beach.
Officials have identified a corpse found in the waters off Jacksonville Beach, Florida, as missing 19-year-old swimmer Curtis Newkirk Jr. The deceased was identified as Newkirk Jr. by the medical examiner on Friday, according to Jacksonville police.
On May 31, at roughly 10:24 a.m., a body was reportedly discovered by a paddleboarder about 100 yards offshore, about 10 blocks north of the Jacksonville Beach Pier.
The 19-year-old went lost in the ocean south of the Jacksonville Beach pier on Sunday, May 28, and the U.S. Coast Guard and local law enforcement searched for him for hours before coming to a tragic conclusion.
According to First Coast News, Newkirk Jr. was swimming with “a group of friends” last Sunday about 7:30 p.m. when lifeguards reported that several of them were having problems in the water. They believed Curtis had exited the ocean by the time the rest of the group reached the shore due to the rip current’s movement to the right, but Newkirk was nowhere to be found.