Teen drowns while trying to swim across flooded rock quarry, North Carolina cops say
A 17-year-old drowned while trying to swim across a flooded rock quarry in North Carolina, officials say.
Victor Douglass Morton, of Jacksonville, was in the water when he vanished on Saturday, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said Monday in a news release.
The old quarry borders the woods in the Piney Green area, roughly 20 miles northeast of the Camp Lejeune U.S. Marine Corps base. Emergency crews searched the water for the teenager and found him at least 25 feet from the edge of the quarry, according to deputies.
Morton was pulled from the water, and “lifesaving measures were initiated,” officials say. The teenager was rushed to Onslow Memorial Hospital, where he died, according to the sheriff’s office.
It’s not the first time tragedy has struck at a North Carolina quarry.
Last spring, a teenager died after jumping off an embankment at the Eno River Rock Quarry in Durham, The News & Observer reported. At the time, officials warned against swimming in the area, where the cliff side and water presented hazards.
