BOSTON (WHDH) - Investigators found no evidence of foul play in the drowning death of a 7-year-old boy in the water near the Curley Community Center in South Boston last year, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said Thursday.
Kyzr Willis, 7, was at a summer drop-off program at Carson Beach on July 26, 2016, when he went missing. Police, lifeguards and other rescue crews searched for hours until they located his body in the water. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.
The investigation had neared a completion late last year, but was extended after Willis’ family informed prosecutors of a tipster who claimed to have seen the boy with an unknown adult male in the waters across the harbor. After a review of the tipster’s statements, prosecutors concluded that the child she saw was not Kyzr.
Willis was with a group of 56 children being supervised by 30 staff members when he went missing from the. He was found in about nine feet of water near the K and L Street beaches.
According to lifeguards, the tide coming in on the afternoon of July 26 not only raised the water level in the area significantly, but also made it more difficult to swim.
In the wake of the boy’s death, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh established new rules at the city’s summer camps, which include an hourly headcount and a requirement that children wear life jackets when they are swimming.
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