4 Missing Jersey Shore Swimmers Dead: Authorities

All four swimmers who went missing while swimming at the Jersey Shore over the past week have now died, authorities said.

Emily Gonzalez-Perez of Belmar, 12, who had been on life support since she was rescued Thursday, died on Monday, four days after her cousin Mitzi Hernandez, 13, drowned off the Ninth Avenue beach in the Monmouth County community, according to Belmar officials.

Two GoFundMe pages have raised more than $60,000 — way surpassing their goals — to pay for medical and funeral expenses for both girls. Belmar Angels has raised more than $47,000, and the Belmar Drowning Medical Fund has raised more than $17,000.

Emily died at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where she had been since she and her cousin, both students at Belmar Elementary School, were pulled from the ocean on an unguarded beach with no parents nearby. Read more here....

Many came to grieve on Friday at St. Rose of Lima R. C. Church in Belmar, which held a prayer vigil for the girls. Read more here...

In Atlantic City, meanwhile, police said Monday they recovered the body of Kaliy-ah Hand, 16, of Atlantic City, one of two missing teen swimmers in the ocean. A search for the two became a "recovery effort" Friday, meaning they did not survive. The other swimmer, Ramon Quinn, 15, of Pleasantville, is presumed dead.

The four swimmers joined a growing list of swimmers who have struggled with rip currents and required rescue efforts. Before Thursday, bystanders jumped in three times this summer season to try to save the lives of swimmers who got caught in rip currents.

In Seaside Heights, two teenage boys rescued three people who were dragged out by a rip current on June 9; on June 12, bystanders pulled two teenage girls from the water in Avon-by-the-Sea after a rip current dragged them near a jetty.

The National Weather Service's Mount Holly office said the number of rip currents has been higher than normal over the past week and a half. The National Weather Service said the activity is usually impacted by events in the ocean that are far away from the Jersey Shore — possibly storm activity. But the agency said it couldn't pinpoint the cause of the recent rip currents.

Read more: Rip Currents: What To Look For, How To Survive Them

In Atlantic City, both teens were reported missing off the beach at Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard on Thursday after battling rip currents. Police said Quinn went into the water to save Hand but never returned.

Witnesses reported seeing two people struggling in the water, Atlantic City Beach Patrol Chief Steve Downey told The Press of Atlantic City. The riptides pulled Hand under the water, and the boy was pulled under when he went looking for Spence.

The Coast Guard said it began its search when watchstanders in Philadelphia were notified that bystanders saw two people struggle in the water fail to resurface at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Coast Guard searched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City, two 29-foot response boats and a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Coast Guard Station Atlantic City, according to a guard news release.

The guard also had the 154-foot Lawrence Lawson, a fast-response cutter based out of Cape May, that searched throughout the night, according to the release. Also searching were members of the New Jersey State Police Marine Services, a New Jersey State Police helicopter crew and the Atlantic City Police and Fire Department.

The two teens were inseparable, right up to the moment when one jumped into the rough surf in an attempt to save the other, a family member told nj.com.

"They stuck together like glue," Jeanai Barnes, Hand's older sister, told nj.com. "Like Bonnie and Clyde, but in a friend way."

YouTube video/photo CBS2 of Mitzi Lugo