Teenager Visiting From Haiti Disappears Off Boynton Beach
BOYNTON BEACH (CBSMiami/The Sun Sentinel) – The search for a teenager visiting from Haiti that disappeared in the waters off of Boynton Beach Inlet turned up no sign of the boy.
The Sun Sentinel reports the 15-year-old was visiting family in South Florida when he disappeared, Sunday, near the inlet pumphouse.
Witnesses said Sebastian Francois was seen panicking and struggling to stay afloat about 7:30 p.m. Sunday according to the paper and a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office incident report.
The boy's cousin told a deputy the teenager was wading in chest-high water when he panicked as the water submerged him.
The cousin tried to help but lost his grip on Sebastian, "who began violently attempting to stay afloat," the report stated. The cousin yelled to Francois' 12-year-old brother Bruce Francois to get help, and the younger boy rushed onto shore to enlist the help of other relatives Daphne Francois, 20, and Jean Francois, 52, who was fishing on the pier, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.