Crime & Safety

Body of 19-Year-Old Man Found in Potomac River

Rescue crews found the young man's body after an extensive search effort.

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Laura L Thornton, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge

The search for a man who went missing in the Potomac River near Great Falls on Monday afternoon is over.

At 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service workers found the body of Ngo Tekwe Forchick, 19, of Takoma Park, in the water following an extended search operation with the Montgomery County Police Department,according to a police statement.

The search for Forchick began around 2 p.m. Monday, when MCFRS received a call saying that Forchick might have drowned in the water off of Purple Horse Beach on Bear Island, part of the Billy Goat Trail along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park in Potomac. The county police department joined MCFRS by conducting a land search for Forchick, according to the statement.

Montgomery County police detectives say that Forchick was swimming with friends when his friends noticed him go under the water and not come back up again. Police are investigating Forchick's death as a drowning.

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The search was suspended briefly on Monday evening because of severe weather, The Washington Post reported.

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