Mike Nester | for WFMZ-TV
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A teenager has died after jumping into the Jordan Creek in Allentown.
The body of a 17-year-old boy was pulled from the creek off of Basin Street on Thursday afternoon, officials say.
Friends are in shock after Allentown police, fire and paramedics rushed to the 300 block of Basin Street just after 11:30 a.m.
Friends of the victim say a group of teens was walking down a set of train tracks, and at least one of them jumped into about six feet of water into the Jordan Creek. But, the victim did not come back up.
Mike Nester | for WFMZ-TV
Scott Siegfried, a supervisor for Great Western Services, was a witness to the response of a person in Jordan Creek.
“Right around lunchtime here I came out of the office and I saw all these fire trucks and cops in my yard here. I came out and asked them what happened and they said someone jumped in the creek behind us. I walked over there and I saw the divers in the water,” he said.
Siegfried reports seeing faculty from Dieruff High School on the scene.
“They asked me if the guy made it or not, I said no… They started crying,” he said.
Joleeanis Olivarria says after school, a group of her friends came down to Jordan Creek. She got a text that one of her friends jumped off the railroad bridge, but did not resurface.
“My friends, they went out to go to the river, and I got a text message that something happened to one of my friends, and that he jumped and he didn’t know how to swim, and now, he’s dead,” she described through tears.
Siegfried says he saw the students being consoled by police.
“There were three kids here with him and they were all shaken up,” Siegfried says. “…Cops took them right away, they were in their cars, and they were all crying… It’s horrible, too young to die.”
The victim’s body was recovered around 2:30 p.m.
The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office plans an autopsy Friday.
The identity of the victim is being withheld out of respect for the family.