Teen's Body Washes Up Days After He Vanished While Fishing with Brother: 'We're Going to Miss Him'

The body of a 14-year-old boy, who was swept away while fishing off a North Carolina beach on the Fourth of July, has been found dead.

The teen — who has been identified as Mainor Perez, according to NBC affiliate WRAL and the Goldsboro Daily News — and his brother Yunior were fishing in the New River Inlet on Thursday, July 4, around 11 a.m. local time when Mainor was swept away, WRAL reported.

After he vanished, the North Topsail Beach Fire Rescue and Coast Guard worked to find Perez and deployed a drone to help search and recovery efforts, per the reports.

Perez's body had washed ashore on base at Camp Lejeune on Sunday, July 7, according to WRAL. The North Topsail Police Department contacted Mainor's family to let them know they had found a body.

PEOPLE has reached out to the North Topsail Beach Police Department for comment.

Yunior told WRAL that Mainor went into the inlet with another brother when the water swept the teen away.

"The water wasn’t too deep, but someone explained to me later there are holes like 30 feet deep, and I think that’s what happened, [Mainor] slipped in and he couldn’t get out," he told the Goldsboro Daily News. "The current was going in and not going out."

A nearby boat was able to save the brother, but Mainor went underwater, per WRAL.

"He couldn't do anything because I saw him in the boat, and he tried to swim back by himself," Yunior told the outlet, which noted that the New River Inlet is known for its strong currents and has signage marking the dangers of the water.

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“We ride by there pretty often and warn people fishing, and warn parents that there’s a drop off," North Topsail Beach Police Chief William Younginer told the Goldsboro Daily News. "It’s close to the same area where a 17-year-old who was using a cast net went missing last summer. He floated up on the third day.”

Yunior told the Goldsboro Daily News about what his brother planned for the future.

"I started a construction company about six months ago, and he was helping me with that," he added. "He was already planning on attending Wayne Community College and then transferring to UNC Chapel Hill.”

"We're going to miss him so much. I'm not sure how we're going to go through this," Yunior told the station. "It's hard."

As of July 9, over $7,000 has been raised via GoFundMe on behalf of the teen's family.