2 drown in New Jersey Rip Current

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NORTH WILDWOOD – Police have identified the woman who drowned Tuesday evening in the Hereford Inlet as Jamilah Watkins, 27, of South Carolina. The second victim has only been identified as a 15-year-old female from Middletown, Conn.

The third person rescued from the water was treated at Cape Regional Medical Center.

Jamilah Watkins is the daughter of Jesse Watkins, a Middle Township man convicted of murdering his cousin, Craig White, in February.

Watkins and the child were pulled from the surf off the north end of the island Tuesday after apparently getting caught in a rip current.

The U.S. Coast Guard and North Wildwood police said the child and the woman died after being pulled unconscious and unresponsive from the water south of First Avenue, where they were swimming on an unguarded beach.

The drownings happened at about 6 p.m. south of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse shortly after lifeguards left their stands for the day.

Rescue crews recovered the unresponsive body of a child from the water and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The child was taken to Cape Regional Medical Center in Middle Township.

About 90 minutes later, rescue crews found the body of the female swimmer in the water.

Helicopters made wide circles around the Second Avenue beaches in the Anglesea section of North Wildwood. On the water, members of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol searched the water in personal watercraft alongside boats operated by local fire companies, the State Marine Police and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Vacationers such as Nancy DeMara, of Hazleton, Pa., on Tuesday said the rip currents were strong on this section of beach just south of Hereford Inlet. DeMara, a former lifeguard, said the waves were big enough to lift her off her feet in waist-high water.

“You could feel the undertow pulling you. I’m a good swimmer, and I could only stay out there 20 minutes before I got tired,” DeMara said.

This section of beach in North Wildwood was the scene of the 2004 drowning of an Upper Darby, Pa., man who got caught in a rip current.

Rip currents are strong but invisible currents that can pull unwary swimmers into deep water. Even the best swimmers cannot fight a strong rip current. But swimmers can get out of a rip current by treading water until the current ebbs and then swimming parallel to the beach until they reach calmer water.

North Wildwood police, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and the Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating the accident.