The bodies of two brothers who died in Massachusetts after a group of swimmers jumped off the iconic “Jaws” bridge in Martha’s Vineyard have been recovered, authorities reported.
A group of four friends reportedly leapt off the bridge late on Sunday night, but only two of the swimmers made it to shore after the plunge, the Coast Guard reported.
“@USCGis is searching for 2 missing swimmers in Edgartown in the vicinity of Jaws Bridge,” the USCG Northeast tweeted early on Monday morning, before noting the half a dozen agencies that were assisting in the search and rescue, which included the Massachusetts State Police.
At around 6.30am on Monday, first responders reported that one of the two missing swimmers’ bodies had been recovered without providing details of the cause of death, a spokesperson for the US Coast Guard told Boston.com.
He was later identified as 26-year-old Tavaris Bulgin, Massachusetts State Police said.
His younger brother Tavaughn Bulgin, 21, was found on Thursday.
The American Legion Memorial Bridge was first made famous for appearing in the 1975 thriller directed by Steven Spielberg. It’s located on Martha’s Vineyard, which lies just south of Cape Cod and connects Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.
Local police told ABC 6 that the two brothers were working at a restaurant on the popular vacation island.
Friends, family and members of the two Jamaican brothers’ church poured their condolences out online, offering up prayers for the deceased children and their parents, Rev Keith and Jackie Bulgin.
“The National Youth & Discipleship Department would like to invite all our young people across Jamaica to join us for a moment in prayer for the Bulgin family & friends, as well as the church at Palmer’s Cross,” wrote the National Youth Department of the New Testament Church of God Jamaica Facebook page late on Monday on their official Facebook page.
The two brothers had reportedly been studying business at the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology when they made their way to Massachusetts to take part in a popular work-and-travel summer programme which sends Jamaican university students to the US each year, according to the Jamaican news outlet Loop News.
The local news outlet reported that the pair of brothers also leave behind two sisters in addition to their mother and father.
Please pray for my best friend Pastor Keith Bulgin, his wife Jackie, their sisters Tavanny and Tavania,” wrote Omar George, a man who described the father and mother as his “best friend” who he’d met while studying at college in Jamaica.
“If this pains me so much I can’t even to begin to imagine what’s happening to them,” he added in his Facebook post commemorating the dead young men.
