A family’s frantic two-day search for a 17-year-old boy who went missing after he dove into Lake Pontchartrain during a weekend outing ended Monday morning when relatives pulled the teen’s body out of the water a short distance from where he was last seen. Bilder Lopez jumped into the water from a pier at the site of the former Pontchartrain Beach amusement park Saturday about 4 p.m. and never resurfaced, authorities said.
bilder-lopez.jpgView full sizeCourtesy Jessica LopezBilder Lopez
The Coast Guard suspended its search for Lopez on Sunday evening, but the teen’s family returned to the lakeshore at dawn Monday in an effort to find him.
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They discovered his body among the rocks on a breakwater yards away from where he went into the lake. The Orleans Parish coroner’s office late Monday morning confirmed that it was Lopez. An autopsy to determine the exact cause of death is pending.
The teen went swimming in the lake during a family outing, said his sister, Jessica Lopez, 15. It was the first time the Guatemalan family went to swim at the lakefront since they moved to New Orleans two years ago, she said. Her brother knew how to swim, Jessica Lopez said.
Officer Frank Robertson, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman, said family members told police that Bilder Lopez and two others dove into the water Saturday afternoon. Lopez “frantically” tried to get out of the water after he dove in but could not, Robertson said.
Noting that the lakefront is dotted with signs prohibiting swimming, Robertson urged the public to stay out of the water. “That water is very dangerous,” he said, adding that even the department’s trained divers can have trouble working in the lake.
body-lake-pontchartrain.jpgView full sizeDanny Monteverde, The Times-PicayuneAuthorities and family members of Bilder Lopez, 17, gather around a body pulled from Lake Pontchartrain on Monday morning behind the UNO Research and Technology Park.
While the Coast Guard dispatched air and water search crews to comb a 10-by-3-mile area along the lakeshore with the NOPD dive team and state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, their efforts were fruitless.
Family members who scoured the lakefront at Elysian Fields Avenue came across Lopez’s body, still clad in a shirt and shorts, about 7 a.m. Monday. They waved to media stationed nearby to update the story, and a reporter called police.
Relatives rushed to the scene throughout the morning, bounding over rocks and riprap to reach the scene. They sobbed and consoled one another as they watched the coroner’s office remove the body.
Jessica Lopez gripped her mother, Irma Orozco, as she spoke through tears about her brother.
“I just thank God we found him,” Lopez said. “He was a great person. He was friendly and kindly. He was a good brother for me, and I will remember (him) for the rest of my life. We love him so much.”
Orozco said she was devastated by the loss of her son.
“To lose a son is such an enormous pain,” she said in Spanish. “How much I loved my son.”
