(NECN: Lauren Collins - Hampton Beach, NH) "I swam to her as fast as I could and tried to retrieve her and I had her within arm's grasp but she went down into the ocean," weeps Walter Maldonado as he relives the moment he lost his little sister - 12 year old Nayelin Encarnacion - who drowned at Hampton Beach Monday night. Her was body recovered Tuesday afternoon.
"We saw some girl running to the officers and telling them that 'they found the body they found the body' and so we came over and saw what was happening," says Jackie DeVeau who was on the beach when Encarnacion was found.
Amber Cleveland was there too. "I heard everybody like "the body the body the body of the little girl.'"
Miguel Romero of Lawrence, Massachusetts saw three men pulling her out. "She was like a dark skinned girl with a blue bathing suit. They just pulled her out of the water, like a bunch of those people over there just started throwing towels on her."
Encarnacion disappeared in the 50 degree water around 8 o'clock Monday night. Her family says the bright sixth grader was a good swimmer, but the Coast Guard confirms that a rip current pulled her under. Maldonado was nearly swept away too, but "A bystander came and helped me, pulled me out the water. "
The search for Encarnacion lasted through the night. In the end, she was recovered just a few feet from where she disappeared, her body in shallow water near the shore.
"I no wanted she go to the beach yesterday," says her mother, Condita Jazmin.
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Maldonado cries, "She was a very special girl. She was going to grow up to go great things. "
