TRAGIC TASK: Divers search for the bodies of two New Jersey teenage boys in Budd Lake yesterday. (Photos: AP)
Clyde III (left) and Nick Cianciatto (right). (
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Clyde III
Nick Cianciatto
GRIEF: Clyde Schimanski Jr. yesterday mourns his son, Clyde III (inset top), who fell through the ice with Nick Cianciatto (inset bottom). Only Nick’s body has been found. (
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Already accepting the inevitable, distraught relatives of two teens who fell through a frozen North Jersey lake watched in sadness yesterday as rescue workers pulled one of the bodies from the icy tomb.
Despite dire warnings from friends and relatives, Nick Cianciotto and Clyde Schimanski III ventured out on frozen Budd Lake Monday evening and fell in when the thin ice gave way, officials said.
Neighbors said they heard the boys’ cries for help in the darkness.
“Please help me! I don’t want to die!” one of the terrified teens screamed, said resident William Hardy to the Newark Star-Ledger, adding that the boy was desperately waving his lighted cellphone.
A couple of residents tried to slide a boat across the ice in a rescue attempt before authorities arrived, but to no avail.
Sources said Cianciotto’s body was pulled from the icy lake shortly after 1 p.m. Rescuers suspended the search for Schimanski III’s body several hours later, with plans to resume today.
Schimanski’s devastated dad, Clyde Jr., said he would be at the shore until his boy’s body was recovered.
“Imagine screaming and knowing you’re going to die,” he told the Star-Ledger.
“He died a horrible death.”
Young Clyde’s mother, Laurie Halloran, said she had warned the boys.
“The last thing I said to them was don’t go out on the lake,” Halloran said. “It’s not safe.”
The distraught dad, who also has two daughters, said he last saw his son before school Monday at about 5:30 a.m.
Schimanski Jr. said his son might have gone out on the lake after seeing gliders on the ice last week.
The dad said there should be a sign warning people not to go on the ice.
Schimanski said Clyde loved working on his motorcycle and had been dating a girl for the past three months.
Friends said Nick and Clyde III had joined two friends on a bike ride near Budd Lake, then decided to go on the ice to fish.
“Nick and Clyde went out further, but my son and another boy stayed back by the beach area,” said Lynn O’Brien, whose son, Billy, was among the last to see the tragic buddies alive.
Billy and the other boy rode home before Clyde and Nick broke through the ice near the middle of the lake, she said.
“They saw everybody else out there and figured it was safe,” O’Brien said. “Apparently it wasn’t.”
Morris County acting prosecutor Fred Knapp said a dive team used sonar in the dark, frigid water to find Nick’s body.
“They were on the lake for 6 1/2 hours,” Knapp said. “They were on the bottom of the lake for 2 1/2 hours.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to find the second victim.”
Friends and relatives hugged each other at a chapel while devastated classmates at Mount Olive HS wore blue as a tribute to the two teens. Silvia Barba, 15, a Mount Olive sophomore, said Nick texted her Monday, asking if she wanted to hang out after school, but she said she was busy.
“I wish I would have said, ‘yes,’ so I could have stopped him,” Barba said. “I wish I could have hung out with him.”Budd Lake, 12 feet at its deepest point, is New Jersey’s largest natural body of water.
Officials speculated that unusually mild temperatures may have thawed the ice in some parts.