![\"Kennedy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d64991c0-57a6-4a97-9fce-a416cb389aaa_1773345650.file.png\")
<\/p>\n17-year-old dies after being caught in rip current at Florida beach<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Central Florida family is mourning the loss of a 17-year-old Orlando teen who died after being caught in a rip current off Daytona Beach.<\/p>\n
Volusia County Beach Safety said Amareon Anthony, 17, and a friend were caught in a rip current Friday evening. Lifeguards rescued the girl, but crews spent hours searching for Anthony.<\/p>\n
Related video above: Aunt remembers teen who ‘loved the water’ after fatal Daytona Beach rip current<\/p>\n
“We had 25 lifeguards in the water. We had two jet skis. We had our rescue vessel running side-scan sonar,” said AJ Miller, deputy chief of Volusia County Beach Safety.<\/p>\n
The search ended Saturday morning after a bystander spotted someone floating in the water and called 911.<\/p>\n
“We received a 911 call for a cardiac arrest by a bystander that had seen the individual out in the water floating, went out, retrieved them, 911 call was made, and we showed up on scene,” Miller said.<\/p>\n
Anthony’s aunt, LaQuice Anthony, said her nephew was a bright, kind teenager who loved spending time at the beach.<\/p>\n
“He was a very smart child. He was bright. He was his own person,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said learning her nephew had been found was devastating.<\/p>\n
“I just lost it because that literally was my biggest fear,” Anthony said. “I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone’s family.”<\/p>\n
She said the tragedy is especially difficult because the ocean was one of his favorite places.<\/p>\n
“That was his safe place. He liked the water,” she said. “You can never expect something like that happen so close to home. We go to the beach all the time. We get in the water all the time.”<\/p>\n
As the family prepares to say goodbye, Anthony said they are also struggling with how to explain the loss to Amareon’s 9-year-old sister.<\/p>\n
“His little sister \u2014 that was her person. That was her Superman. That was her hero,” she said.<\/p>\n
Now, Anthony hopes her family’s tragedy serves as a reminder for others visiting Florida’s beaches.<\/p>\n
“Just be careful around the water,” she said. <\/p>\n
Related video below: Doctor on how you can avoid being swept up in a rip current<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"17-year-old dies after being caught in rip current at Florida beach A Central Florida family is mourning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[88067,116019,136422,44527,18294,2606,136753,136751,136757,2678,2389,3160,136756,1089,7734,12085,29,53629,58914,120534,18742,136755,139,141,140,99440,97480,81885,23879,136754,136758,136420,136759,32376,2261,136421,4103,8919],"class_list":["post-331352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-aj-miller","tag-aligncenter","tag-amareon-anthony","tag-anthony","tag-aunt","tag-beach-conditions","tag-beach-drowning","tag-beach-rescue","tag-beach-search","tag-bystander","tag-call","tag-daytona-beach","tag-daytona-beach-news","tag-family","tag-florida-beach","tag-florida-beaches","tag-florida-news","tag-jsnd","tag-lifeguard","tag-lifeguards","tag-loss","tag-ocean-safety","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-teen","tag-related-video","tag-rescue-crews","tag-rip-current","tag-rip-current-death","tag-rip-current-safety","tag-spending-time","tag-swimming-safety","tag-tragedy","tag-volusia-county","tag-volusia-county-beach-safety","tag-water","tag-water-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}