Body of missing swimmer Moses Muchai washes up at North Carolina Marine base Camp Lejeune

The body of a man who went missing while exploring an ocean sandbar was discovered Sunday on a beach at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Moses Muchai, 24, disappeared July 29 at North Topsail Beach, off Topsail Island, North Carolina, which is about 30 minutes from base, while walking on a sandbar that vanished as the tide came in, local police told Marine Corps Times on Friday.

A local fire crew rescued his 12-year-old brother, who had been exploring with him.

“Unfortunately, Moses was farther out and went under before another swimmer could reach him,” said the town’s police chief, William Youngkin, said in a statement.

Swimmers from the North Topsail Beach, North Carolina, fire department could not find Muchai despite days of efforts.

The Provost Marshal’s Office of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, received a call early Sunday morning, two days after Muchai’s disappearance, that a body had been found on the base’s Onslow Beach.

“We offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of Moses Muchai during this terrible tragedy,” said 1st Lt. Ace A. Padilla, a spokesman for the base, in a statement to Marine Corps Times.

Two other bodies have washed up on the beach at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in the past 10 years, according to Padilla.

Although Muchai was reportedly a civilian, the discovery of his body on a Marine base recalls the several Marine drowning deaths that have occurred in the past few years, including in North Carolina.

In May 2019, Lance Cpl. Justin A. Hinds, 28, drowned off North Carolina’s Emerald Isle.

In April, a Marine private first class drowned while swimming at a beach on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

A master sergeant died in September 2019 on his wedding day, swimming off the San Diego coast to save two children.

A similar drowning took place at North Topsail Beach on July 9, when Antwaun Jackson, 40, died rescuing family members from a rip current, Youngkin told Marine Corps Times.