DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170503

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   29 lines

SEARCH TEAMS CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR BOY IN WATER

Search teams continued to look Wednesday for the body of Jason T. Thomas, an 11-year-old boy who apparently drowned Tuesday afternoon at Community Beach in Ocean View.

Police Sgt. Wayne Baker said rescuers moved the search several hundred yards out into the Chesapeake Bay. A thunderstorm at midafternoon Wednesday halted the search, police spokesman Larry Hill said, and he was not sure when it would resume.

Jason was playing with his 13-year-old brother and two friends at the Community Beach when witnesses say he slipped off a sandbar and disappeared into the murky water. Rescuers searched for the boy from 3:30 p.m. Tuesday until dark, then resumed the search Wednesday morning.

Lifeguards and Norfolk police divers were assisted in the search by the Coast Guard and Norfolk fire and rescue workers.

Jason's family lives in the 700 block of Chester Street. Hill said they had moved to Norfolk from Chicago about a year ago.

The parents were not at the beach when Jason disappeared, Hill said.

Hill said the search was hindered because the other boys could not remember exactly where Jason went under the surface and because of the limited visibility in the water. KEYWORDS: DROWNING

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