Paterson teen drowns while swimming in the Delaware on a summer camping trip
PATERSON — Jose Madera Martinez, 19, of Paterson, and his friends were going swimming on a warm summer’s night during a camping trip at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area last week.
Their goal was to swim out to one of the stone abutments protruding from the Delaware River, structures built to support a freight railroad bridge connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania that hasn’t been in operation for nearly 80 years.
The stone abutments loomed about 50 feet from the shore. But the currents in that area are unusually strong and swift, and the river was almost 3 feet deeper than its normal 5-foot depth in that area for this time of year, the National Park Service said. The four swimmers were not wearing life jackets, officials said.
Martinez never reached the stone abutment, officials said. The river pulled him underwater, and he disappeared at about 8 p.m. on Thursday night, according to accounts given by his friends to park officials. His body was discovered at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, submerged in 12 feet of water about a mile downstream from where he was last seen struggling to stay afloat, officials said.
“He was a good kid, really loved,” said Councilman Luis Velez, who was Martinez’s neighbor on East 23rd Street in Paterson more than a decade ago.
Martinez was a student at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Velez said. The teen’s mother was in the Dominican Republic undergoing a medical procedure at the time of the incident, Velez said.
“She found out what happened when she got out of surgery,” Velez said. “The father, he still can't even speak. I was with him last night.”
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Martinez’s friends also struggled in the strong currents, park officials said. Two of them managed to get to an abutment2, where they were trapped until Portland, Pennsylvania, firefighters rescued them in a boat, officials said. The fourth friend got back to shore on his own.
The search for Martinez’s body was complicated by river conditions that made it too dangerous for divers, officials said. Velez said the teen’s family was worried the search would be suspended, so the councilman contacted Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.
“We made clear that finding Mr. Martinez was a top priority for our entire community and to keep looking until he was found,” Pascrell said. “I am very sorry for his passing, but that he was found will hopefully provide their family with a small bit of closure to this dreadful tragedy.”
U.S. Park Ranger and Search and Rescue Team leader Dustin Gunderson expressed sympathy for Martinez’s family and friends.
"While our crews always hold out hope for a rescue during these incidents, it is also important to search teams to be able to bring the bodies of deceased loved ones back to their families as quicky as possible,” Gunderson said. “We are glad that we could do that today."
Martinez became the 104th person to drown in the Water Gap area since officials started keeping count in 1970, said park service spokeswoman Kathleen Sandt. Before Martinez’s death, the most recent drowning at the Water Gap happened on July 24, 2020, she said.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Delaware River drowning: Paterson NJ teen drowns during camping trip
