SC teen who drowned in Atlantic Ocean remembered as athlete, ‘rising’ high school senior
The teenager who drowned after going missing in the ocean near Pawleys Island on July 12, 2024, was a Waccamaw High School senior and rising athlete.
Tyrese Haynes was a member of the high school varsity basketball team, wearing jersey No. 4. The Murrells Inlet resident was not only a good athlete, but well-liked by his peers, according to social media posts.
The 17-year-old’s body was recovered Saturday after he went swimming near Litchfield by the Sea after work, according to officials. Witnesses said Haynes was with another teen and both were struggling in the ocean. The other teen made it to shore, but Haynes went under the water, officials said.
Georgetown County School District’s Crisis Care Team, which includes counselors and local clergy, announced this weekend that they will be in the Waccamaw High School media center beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday to “offer support, comfort and reassurance to our students, faculty and staff.”
Those on social media recalled the young man.
“Our Warrior Family is grieving,” according to a Facebook post by the Waccamaw High School Athletic Boosters Club. “Tyrese was an invaluable member of our team, school and community. There will forever be a hole where Tyrese stood. We are sending all of our prayers to Tyrese’s family and friends.”
Other posts described Haynes as a “sweet kid” and a remarkable athlete, a rising senior at the high school.
Austin Bond, a youth pastor at Low Country Community Church, described on Facebook what the scene looked like as rescue crews searched for the young man. He said many people were standing on the beach and one family was “hugging each other tightly.”
While Bond didn’t know Haynes, some of his youth members did. He said Sunday night that some of the students are “overwhelmed with grief.”
Rescue crews received the call about a male teen missing in the surf at 6:10 p.m. Friday, according to Brandon Ellis, director of Georgetown County Emergency Management. Crews searched Friday until the evening and then resumed the search Saturday morning.
The body of Haynes was found at Huntington Beach State Park Saturday afternoon, according to a release from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies saw what appeared to be a body in the surf, and a Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office drone unit returned to the area and confirmed the sighting, according to the sheriff’s department release. Deputies on all-terrain vehicles recovered the body.
Sheriff’s Office marine and drone units joined with partners Midway Fire Rescue, Murrells Inlet Garden City Fire Rescue, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard in the extensive search.
Rough seas and impending storms hampered the search for the teen, according to the release.
