The four teenagers feared drowned off City Island used a cell phone to make a desperate 911 call Friday night, saying their boat was taking on water – but were disconnected before cops could pinpoint their location and send help, authorities said yesterday.
“A male caller is heard to say they are on a boat on Long Island Sound and they were taking on water. The call then disconnects,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
“They were obviously looking for help.”
Late last night, meanwhile, police recovered a body floating under the Throgs Neck Bridge. It was not known if it was that of one of the teens.
Kelly said the 12-second 911 call came in at 9:58 p.m. Friday, less than half an hour after the boys were seen at a City Island gas station carrying oars.
He said no one went out on the call because “there was not enough information on the call for the operator to dispatch help.”
Only after family members contacted police around noon the next day – 14 hours later – did police launch a search.
Kelly said the quickest police could have deployed aviation units and scuba divers Friday night was about 20 minutes – if they knew exactly where the teens were.
“Again, you need a specific location. We simply did not have enough information from the call,” he said.
Water temperature at the time the teens were presumed to have gone in was 31 degrees.
Doctors say an adult would lose consciousness in about 15 minutes and die in about 45 minutes in water that cold.
When the search finally began Saturday, boats and helicopters scoured the waters from as far north as Larchmont to as far south as Hempstead Harbor, Kelly said.
He added that the families of the missing boys – Charles Wertenbacker, 16, of City Island; Andrew Melnikov, 16, of Manhattan; Henry Badillo, 17, of The Bronx; and Max Guarino, 17, of Manhattan – were told of the harrowing call.
“Obviously, it was distressing news for the family members. They were understandably, visibly upset,” Kelly said.
He said the call had been made from Badillo’s cell phone.
Kelly couldn’t speculate on the teenagers’ motive for taking a boat out in the frigid weather.
But longtime residents of City Island said teens sometimes make jaunts to nearby Hart Island, the site of the city’s potter’s field, and High Island.
Richard Thome, 62, knows Wertenbaker, a student at Bronx HS of Science.
He said the teen’s family owns a 6-foot dinghy, but did not know if that was the boat the boys may have taken.
“I don’t know if he had the experience to use it,” Thome said, adding, “It’s not like him to be irresponsible.”
Alice Abthory, who lives in same building as the Melnikov family, described the teenager as “an avid guitar player, and a smart boy who had plenty of friends.”
She said he also attends Bronx Science HS.
Abthory said the youth’s parents immigrated from Russia.
His father, she said, is a psychiatrist and his mother a librarian.
“They love the boy,” she said.
Badillo’s great-aunt Amelia Banchs was on City Island yesterday, standing outside in 30-degree weather, waiting for word.
“I’m just hoping we get good news. I will continue hoping until the very end,” she said.
Mayor Bloomberg paid a visit to the command center and spent 40 minutes with relatives and friends of the teens.
Meanwhile, Kelly insisted that the 911 operator followed procedure by notifying her supervisor and logging the call.
But he added there would be a review. “To the best of our knowledge right now, they followed their procedures,” Kelly said. “But we are doing an examination.”