Sayreville Teen Drowns In PA Lake Trying To Save Family Members

SAYREVILLE, NJ — A 19-year-old Sayreville teen drowned Aug. 6 while swimming in a lake in Pennsylvania, according to his family.

The teen is Elisam "Eli" Santana, who drowned in Beltzville Lake outside of Lehighton, PA. Part of the lake is Beltzville State Park beach, which is maintained by the state of Pennsylvania and has lifeguards for public swimming.

Santana — who his family called Eli — drowned while swimming in an unguarded section of the lake.

According to his family, he died while saving his younger brother, 14, and cousin, 9, from a sharp drop-off close to shore. Beltzville Lake was damned in the 1960s and is known for steep drop-offs.

"He was a hero," said his cousin Heidilyn Urena, 25, on Monday. "We want the truth out there about exactly what happened that day, and how he died."

She was not there that day but it was her little brother, 9, who Santana died saving.

"It was a normal Sunday," she said. "My family was planning a day outside; we decided to go to a lake. It was 2:20 p.m. They got to the swimming section of Beltzville Lake, but it was very crowded and the water looked not clean. So security guards at the park directed them to another part of the lake."

That part did not have lifeguards, she said.

"But many people, even 2-year-olds, were swimming in that section."

She said it all happened while the family was still unpacking the car, including unpacking life jackets for the kids.

The 9- and 14-year-old boys immediately ran into the water, as did Santana and his friend, also 19.

"We had no idea, but that part of the lake drops off very suddenly and there is a 50-foot-hole right off the shore. The younger boys even said they could feel some kind of current pulling them into the hole," she said. "My brother and the 14-year-old suddenly could not touch and started panicking, screaming for help."

She estimated this happened no more than 10 feet from the shore.

Santana and the other teen swam over to help. She said they pulled the two younger boys to shore, and Santana actually put her 9-year-old brother on his back.

"(Elisam) knows how to swim. We are not sure if he just got tired or if his knee started hurting him; he loved to play basketball and he (previously) had surgery on his knee," she said. "He said he was going to push my little brother to shore. My little brother told me Eli said to him, 'I'm going to push you and you just keep swimming.' The last thing my little brother saw was him holding onto his arm."

When the younger boy looked back, Santana had disappeared under the dark waters of the lake.

"Everyone started screaming, 'Where's Elisam? Where's Elisam?!"" she said.

She said "everyone" in the family immediately jumped into the water to look for the teen, including his mother, who does not know how to swim.

"She did not care; she was not thinking of that," she said. "She just kept getting in the water to look for her son. Her husband had to pull her out of the water."

Urena said state park employees arrived within four minutes, but "none of them went into the water. The park rangers never got in. They weren't acting with remorse or anything; they were acting like it was a life that wasn't worth saving."

PA Bureau of State Parks responds

"There is a designated swimming beach at Beltzville State Park and the drowning victim was swimming at another area," a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Bureau of State Parks said. "There are 'No swimming' signs posted in that area. DCNR staff has not been trained for rescue in deeper waters."

Santana's cousin said divers came about seven minutes later, but they also did not enter the water. She said they started assembling their gear and even they did not enter the water until about three hours later.

Santana's body was not recovered until the next morning.

"The divers stopped the search at 10 p.m. that night. They told us it was getting too dark," said Urena. "His mother stayed that night in a hotel in the area and the search resumed again at 6 a.m. the next day. At 9 a.m., she got a phone call asking her to come to the beach to identify a body they found."

"We cannot eat; we cannot sleep," said the teen's mother, Elizabeth Payano, who lives in Sayreville. "I am living every parents' worst nightmare."

Funeral services for Santana will begin Monday, Aug. 14, from 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. at Carmen Spezzi Funeral Home at 15 Cherry Lane in Parlin, NJ. He will be buried Wednesday.

"Nobody got into the water other than the civilians in our family," emphasized Urena. "There was one other man on the beach with his wife and two kids, and he immediately jumped into the water when he heard us screaming. He was the only one. We actually would really like to find him and thank him and ask him for his account of what happened that day." (He should call her at 917-773-4729).

She said her family is considering suing the Pennsylvania DCNR Bureau of State Parks.

"It's not about the money; we don't think that part of the park should be open to the public. We were directed by park staff to go there. We are angry and devastated. Also, we were told there was one sign warning there was a drop-off, but we never saw the sign. We think there should be more signs. We also think they should have tried to save him. Nobody even tried."

Santana graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School in 2022 and was currently enrolled at Brookdale Community College, where he was studying finance.

His family said they will forever remember him as a hero.

"He was really an amazing kid, and I know everyone who loses a family member says that," said Urena. "But Eli really actually was."

She shared that "for the past two years, he had been studying the Bible. He enjoyed doing that and after he died, we went into his bedroom at his mom's house (in Sayreville). We found these notes he had taken, and one of read, 'Trust God's plan — everything happens for a reason.' That is the only thing giving us hope right now. We think he is sending us a message, and that God knows what he's doing. It's not the easiest because this is really hard. I am putting all my faith in God right now."

"We want to honor Eli for the amazing acts that he did. He saved two other lives that day. If he had not done what he did, it would be three of them who drowned."

Beltzville State Park manager Benjamín Monk told Lehigh Valley Live that the man-made lake quickly goes from a few feet to 40-feet deep because it was artificially damned in the 1960s.

“Our lake can go anywhere from ankle-deep and you take a few steps and you’re in over your head,” Monk told the newspaper.

Obituary for Elisam S. "Eli" Santana, 19, of Sayreville