A mother and son drowned while swimming at a beach where the Chowan River meets the Albemarle Sound in Bertie County.
According to the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office, an 11-year-old girl who was rescued from the water at Bertie Beach in Merry Hill said she and her mother, Shaunna Jernigan, were on floats when her 14-year-old brother, Timothy, who was swimming nearby, began to struggle.
The mother jumped off the float to help her son, and she became distressed as well.
An off-duty Bertie County EMS worker, the Merry Hill Fire Chief, and others rescued the girl and pulled the others from the water, but CPR was not successful.
