SYMMES TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A body found in the Little Miami River was a 17-year-old boy who disappeared under the surface Saturday night, the sheriff's office said.
A kayaker saw the body at about 8:55 p.m. Monday near Terrace Park, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff confirmed Tuesday morning it was James Ward.
Ward's friends and family, some of them crying, clustered on the riverbank. Some of the boy's friends had become so upset that authorities escorted them away from the river.
Ward's brother claimed he'd disappeared in the water while they were trying to swim across, sheriff’s spokesman David Daughtery said.
The Loveland Symmes Fire Department recovered the body.
Ward's death remains under investigation, the sheriff's office said.
