A 17-year-old caught by a rip current Sunday evening at Punta Las Marías was found dead Monday morning on the rocks behind the Galaxy condominium in Isla Verde, after state, federal and municipal crews searched into the night and resumed at dawn.
SAN JUAN, Oct. 26 — The teenager, identified as Alejandro Vázquez Rodríguez, was pulled out by the current shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday on the beach at Punta Las Marías, along the San Juan–Carolina boundary near Avenida Isla Verde and Calle Júpiter. That is according to the preliminary police account reported by El Nuevo Día. A 9-1-1 call reported the emergency at 5:49 p.m.
He was not alone in the water. Police said his cousin heard him calling for help and tried to reach him, but could not fight the force of the current. Telemundo Puerto Rico reported that both young men were swept out and that the cousin made it back to shore. WAPA described the second young man as an 18-year-old friend.
“It was a group of students at the beach, and that’s when the current took two kids, and this one went under,” Carlos Acevedo, commissioner of San Juan’s Municipal Office of Emergency Management, told El Nuevo Día. Acevedo said the teen lived in Río Piedras.
The search off Punta Las Marías
Several teams searched Sunday night without finding him:
- the state Emergency Management Bureau
- the maritime unit of the Puerto Rico Police’s FURA
- the U.S. Coast Guard
- personnel from the municipalities of San Juan and Carolina
Police agent Ileannett Montero Ferrer told Primera Hora that the search was suspended overnight and resumed at 5 a.m. Monday.
A resident of the Galaxy, a beachfront condominium on Avenida Isla Verde in Carolina, spotted the body Monday morning and alerted authorities, Telemundo reported. It was on the rocks in front of the building’s pool, a short distance east of where the teen was swept away.
Rip current warnings on the north coast
The emergency came during several days of dangerous surf. Over the weekend, the National Weather Service in San Juan warned of life-threatening rip currents on exposed beaches along the north, northwest and east coasts and in Culebra, El Nuevo Día reported. On Monday the Weather Service said the high risk remained in effect, with breaking waves of up to 12 feet possible, according to Metro Puerto Rico. Condado Daily flagged a similar high rip-current risk for Condado and San Juan beaches in September.
As of mid-October, Puerto Rico had recorded 18 rip current deaths this year, more than any other U.S. jurisdiction. Metro reported that figure on Oct. 15 from preliminary Weather Service data. It already exceeded the 11 deaths recorded in all of 2025 and the 16 in 2024. Deaths this year have occurred at beaches including Playa Puerta de Tierra, Ocean Park and Playa Condado in San Juan.
Ernesto Morales, warning coordination meteorologist at the Weather Service office in San Juan, told Metro that the north coast is most exposed between October and April, when swells arrive. He said most victims are local residents, not tourists. He also said a rip current often looks like the calmest stretch of water on the beach, which draws people into it.
Juan Cana González, president of the Puerto Rico Lifeguard Association, told Metro that lifeguards in Condado have made as many as 400 preventive interventions in a single week. He said drownings there have dropped since lifeguard coverage was reinforced.
The Weather Service advises anyone caught in a rip current to yell for help, stay calm and float rather than swim against it. Once the current weakens, swim parallel to the shore before heading back to the beach. Sea conditions and beach safety guidance are posted on Swim Safe Puerto Rico (swimsafepr.com), a free platform from the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.
Related coverage: High Rip-Current Risk Issued for Condado, San Juan Beaches
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Sources: El Nuevo Día; Primera Hora; Telemundo Puerto Rico; WAPA; Metro Puerto Rico; National Weather Service San Juan (as reported by Metro Puerto Rico and El Nuevo Día).
