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Coast Guard and Marine Police boats operate where a body was found on Thursday, July 3, near the Ocean City-Longport Bridge.
Coast Guard and state Marine Police boats were seen in the Great Egg Harbor Inlet about 12:30 p.m. near the channel between the Ocean City-Longport Bridge and the Dolores Cooper Bridge on the Longport causeway.
The boats returned to the Coast Guard station at the North Point Lagoon in Ocean City.
Ocean City Police Capt. Steve Ang said authorities believe the body is Hammond's. Ang said a positive identification had not been made early on Thursday afternoon. He said the body was transported to the Shore Medical Center in Somers Point.
The Cape May County Prosecutor's Office, Cape May County Medical Examiner's Office and Ocean City Police Department are investigating, according to Ang.
Hammond was visiting Ocean City for the day on Sunday when he went into the ocean with two friends at about 6:45 p.m. — after the Ocean City Beach Patrol had left for the day.
The boys could not swim back to the beach on their own, and an OCBP Rapid Response Team ended up rescuing two of them and a handful of other beachgoers who had tried to assist them. Hammond was never seen again. Read more about the drowning.
A massive search from the beach, ocean and sky turned up no sign of Hammond until his body surfaced on Thursday. It had drifted about three miles north and crossed under the Ocean City-Longport Bridge and was found by a boater.
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