Monday started off as a day of relaxation for those who spent the day at Mauch Chunk Lake Park.

After all, it was the Fourth of July and the weather was perfect for visitors who chose to spend the holiday soaking up the sun.

Sabrina Guerrido was at the beach with her husband, daughter and friends. Guerrido, of Allentown, said they had arrived around noon.

It wasn’t until several hours later that pandemonium ensued after a frantic search began for a 17-year-old boy who was last seen in the water.

Guerrido said she initially saw him in the water playing. A few hours later, she said there were a bunch of teenagers in the water.

After being alerted that they couldn’t find the victim, Guerrido said her husband went into the water along with two other men.

“Finally, we told the lifeguards because the lifeguards were just standing there asking what was going on; they didn’t run into the water,” Guerrido said. His 13-year-old cousin told Guerrido, “He went in the water and kept walking and they didn’t see him anymore.”

Guerrido yelled to the lifeguards and two went into the water, and she soon followed.

“It was the good Samaritans that were on the beach that went into the water that went to find the (boy),” she said. “One of the gentlemen said, ‘I found him, he’s right here,’ which was past the rope.

“That’s when my husband went under the young gentleman to push the body up so he could grab him. Once he did that, they were able to grab him, and one of the gentlemen put his hand out to me so that I could pull him out of the deep end.”

Guerrido said that’s when she said to him, “You have to do CPR,” and added the man next to her started blowing air into the juvenile’s mouth. He started bleeding immediately from his nose.

“We rushed him to the beach and (one of the cops who arrived) started doing CPR on him,” she said. “They got him on the gurney and they took him away in the ambulance.”

Despite their best efforts, it wasn’t enough to save the 17-year-old boy.

Jim Thorpe Police Chief Joe Schatz said the police department was dispatched at 4:19 p.m. Monday for a report of a possible drowning.

Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. David Moylan said the boy was taken to St. Luke’s Miners Campus, where he was pronounced dead in the early evening.

Though the lake is in Carbon County, the case was under Schuylkill County’s jurisdiction because the boy was taken to Miners in Coaldale.

Miller said officials are working with a translator to get information from the family, who is from Mexico.