Search teams came from all over the area looking for the 4-year-old boy who was ripped from his mother and swept out to the deep ocean water when a Rogue Wave suddenly broke on the beach where they were walking. Both the mom and son were knocked off their feet by the huge and strong wave, but it was the undercurrent that carried the 4-year-old out to deep water in just a few seconds.
Ripped from his mother
The mom could only watch as her little boy was pulled further out to sea until another wave broke her line of sight. That was the last time she saw her little boy.
The boy has been identified as Wesley Belisle, who was visiting relatives in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with his parents. He was their only child.
The family lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and were just visiting the Outer Banks at the time of the horrendous incident. Despite searching 130 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean last week there was no sign of little Wesley's body. All that was found was his little cap about an hour after he was swept out to sea.
Boy's cap recovered
The ocean current in the area is so strong that it carried the boy's hat two miles from where he went into the ocean in just that hour's time. Today Wesley's body was discovered by the Currituck County Sheriff's Office, about 35 miles away from the beach that Wesley was on when that rogue wave struck, according to the Virginian Pilot.
The boy's body was found on Carova Beach after the official search and recovery efforts were suspended. Despite the authorities calling off the official search, locals and teams of professional searchers took it upon themselves to carry-on looking for the body of the boy.
Almost impossible search
The hardest part of a search in that area has to do with the ocean currents.
There was no way to estimate where the body of the boy would most likely travel. Still, people took to the beaches, launched their own boats, and even searched from the air, all on their own.
After the Kitty Hawk Police Department announced the suspension of the search on Facebook they were inundated with calls offering to help in the search.
They posted another Facebook post saying all were welcome to search for the recovery of the boy. The currents in that area of the ocean, off North Carolina's Outer Banks, are so unpredictable that there was no one area they could pinpoint to search.
Wesley's body found
Before Wesley's body was found today, the community held a memorial for the boy on Sunday. People created a make-shift shrine to little Wesley on the beach near where he went into the water. The family received an outpouring of love and condolences from all over the world after the tragedy hit the headlines.
