A body pulled from Budd Lake this afternoon belonged to one of the teen boys believed to have fallen through the ice yesterday, according to authorities.  

Police and Mount Olive Mayor Robert Greenbaum held a brief press conference to confirm the discovery of a body. They did not identify the teen.

Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fred Knapp announces the end of Tuesday's recovery efforts
Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fred Knapp announces the end of Tuesday's recovery efforts (Townsquare Media)
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The recovery efforts for the other missing boy has ended for today. State Police will return to the scene Wednesday morning to continue the mission.

Last night the victims were a "significant distance" from the shore, nearly in the lake's center, a fire official told the  New Jersey Herald. WNYW TV reports via Twitter one of the boys fell through the ice and the other rode his bike onto the ice to rescue him.

Sources tell Townsquare Media NJ the boys were 14 and 15, both students of Mount Olive High School. A man identifying himself as one of the boys' fathers told the Star Ledger he believes his son "died a horrible death." He said, "Imagine screaming and knowing you're going to die." He added, "This is what God wanted. God works in mysterious ways."

William Hardy heard cries for help from his home along Budd Lake and called 911, according to the Star Ledger.  He tried to walk across the ice to help but heard cracks as he walked, stopping about 100 feet short of a blue light, possibly from a cell phone.

"Please help me, I don’t want to die,"Hardy told the Star Ledger they screamed. Hardy shouted back that help was on the way.

Search on Budd Lake
Search on Budd Lake for two missing teens (WABC-TV)
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"It's a terrible thing to have to deal with situations where there are families that don't know where their children are or possibly don't know what's happened to them," Mayor  Greenbaum told WABC TV. "So it's troubling."

The father of one of the unidentified missing boys sat in his pickup truck in a parking lot and talked about his son with reporters saying that he had just started dating his first girlfriend.

Many Mount Olive High School students wore blue shirts on Tuesday, in honor of the alleged victims.


Dino Flammia and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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