Police ID Girl who Drowned While Snorkeling off Narragansett Coast

Narragansett police identified the 14-year-old girl who died while snorkeling and spear fishing with her father off Newton Rock in Narragansett on Wednesday as Maia Stanton, of Southfield, Mass.

SEE: In Snapchat Moments before Drowning, Maia Stanton Let the World Know She Was Happy

Stanton was pulled from the water by rescuers after an hours-long search and rushed to South County Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Narragansett Police Chief Dean Hoxsie said that the girl was in the water with her father when she disappeared from view. He frantically searched for her for nearly an hour before he called 911.

Rescuers that included the Narragansett Bay Marine Task Force and the U.S. Coast Guard launched multiple boats and a helicopter. They searched for more than two hours before a Narragansett police officer in one of the rescue boats noticed her fin along a section of rocks 50 yards from shore after a group of large waves came through.

She was found under the water along a section of rocky shoreline on Narragansett’s east face. Here, titanic slabs of weathered granite give way to an undulating sea, which draws crowds to sit and look out to where Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet.

While the site offers breathtaking views and many nooks and crannies to explore, it makes the choppy tides unpredictable. Local authorities have the unfortunate task of responding routinely to this area, which includes Black Point and the rock shelves at the ends of Hazard and Newton Avenues.

Hoxsie told NBC10 that the rocks are often slippery and on Wednesday there was heavy surf crashing into them. Out-of-towners who come to enjoy the ocean might not realize the immense danger posed by the combination of rough seas and rocks, he said.

“We lose people pretty much every year off of these rocks,” Hoxsie said.

Arrangements for Stanton are to be announced.

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