Screams of girl led to her rescue

The screams of a 13-year-old girl as she struggled to swim to shore were what brought rescuers to her Tuesday night in Galveston Bay, according to authorities.

The girl was likely in the water for more than four hours, leaving a rental boat that also had carried two adults, a woman who fell overboard and a man who went after her. Their bodies were found Wednesday morning in Seabrook.

The child was 250 yards from shore and clinging to a flotation device around 10:40 p.m. when a homeowner with a pier in the 4100 block of Todville Road in Seabrook heard her cries, said Andrew Gutacker, chief of Sea

brook Volunteer Fire Department. His assistant chief, Andy Castiglione, whom he lauded for saving another life earlier this year, was one of the first rescuers to reach the pier.

Castiglione, a retired Marine, said a pair of Seabrook police officers lowered him into the water and he swam out to save her.

While the water was brackish-warm, the bay was dark and choppy and Castiglione, 44, often lost sight of her in the surf, he recalled. He fought through the waves and would often

swim on his back to hear her calling out for help as first responders on shore shined a flashlight on her.

He finally reached her and found the girl clinging to what appeared to be an orange floatie.

“She was clearly in a state of panic,” Castiglione continued. “She wasn't swimming. She was just in a state of survival.”

Castiglione paused to catch his breath and then set off for shore with the girl rolled under him. About two-thirds of the way back, Coast Guard rescuers found the two and plucked them from the water. The girl began calming down.

Castiglione managed to

get a few words out of her. She revealed that two adults had been with her. She was unsure where or when her ordeal began. The sun was still out when the adults went under and she remembered seeing kite sailers. He believes she tried working the boat.

The girl, Coast Guard officials believe, next grabbed a flotation device and decided to swim back to land. The boat washed ashore at El Jardin Beach around 7:15 p.m. in Seabrook — about 2 miles north of where she was later found. The boat’s kill switch had been pulled, officials said. She would spend the next three hours

trying desperately to stay afloat. During that time, the sun set.

“This girl was incredibly tough to be out in the water for that long in the dark,” Castiglione said.

Castiglione warned that boaters should always be wearing life jackets.

“It’s such a simple thing to do,” he said.

The identities of the boaters — a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s — are not yet known.

Boat traffic is not heavy in the area where the girl was found but large waves can be an issue, Gutacker said.