A Pamlico County teenager is missing and presumed dead after falling into the Neuse River on Sunday along with two of his friends.

Anthony Michael Badger Jr., 17, of Oriental, fell into the river around 6 a.m. Sunday and has not been seen since, said David Spruill, Pamlico County's emergency management director.

Badger was with his teenage friends, Kevin Conway of Pamlico County and John Bullard of Craven County, Spruill said.  Conway and Bullard were wearing life jackets; Badger was not.

The Coast Guard said the three boys had gone out on a personal watercraft in Oriental and were swimming when Badger began to struggle. Spruill said his understanding was that the boys were not swimming by choice, but that their personal watercraft had flipped and they all ended up in the river.

"It seems that for a few minutes, they could touch bottom and then they couldn't," Spruill said. "The two boys with the life jackets were OK, but Anthony could not stay up. He tried to pull himself up by holding onto Kevin, but he was pulling Kevin under. They tried to get a life jacket to Anthony, but he just went under and did not come back up."

A Coast Guard rescue boat combed the waters, and a Coast Guard helicopter from Elizabeth City hovered above the river searching for signs of Badger. Later, a helicopter from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point relieved the Coast Guard helicopter, and on the water, a Pamlico County Sheriff's Department marine patrol looked for signs of life. The Sidney Dive team from Beaufort County also joined the search.

Nearly 14 hours into the search, with little light left on the landscape, Spruill said his hope of finding Badger alive was fading.

"At this point, we believe we are looking for a body," he said. "It is sad. The other two boys said they tried to get Anthony to put on a life jacket before they left, and he said, ‘No, I can swim.' We think the water was too much for him."

Nikie Mayo can be reached at (252) 635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.