Teen dies in Gulf despite rescue attempt

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The efforts of several people were not enough to prevent the death of 13-year-old girl on a church retreat who was pulled from the Gulf of Mexico on Monday afternoon.

Jade McAllister, of Blue Ridge, Ga., was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead after Thomas Simmons helped find her and bring her to shore. The man who flagged Simmons, who was on a paddleboard near Beach Access 91 around 5 p.m. Monday, told him a young girl was missing and asked for his help finding her because he had a better view from his paddleboard, Simmons said.

“Because I was standing up paddling I was able to see her from a distance,” Simmons said Tuesday.

McAllister was face down in the water about 300 yards offshore when Simmons pulled her onto his board. Simmons said he spent the next several minutes alternating between efforts to alert people on the sand and performing CPR on McAllister, who was unresponsive when he found her.

“It felt like it took forever” to get McAllister to shore, Simmons said. Rescuers entered the water and helped to bring Simmons and McAllister back to land and got her to a waiting ambulance

According to Bay County Sheriff’s Office report:

McAllister and several other children were having trouble in the water, and an adult with them told them to stay near the shore, but McAllister already had been pulled out. The adult attempted to swim out to her; she got into trouble herself and needed assistance to get back to the shore. She was “extremely upset about … her inability to help Jade,” the report stated.

McAllister and others from the Hemptown Baptist Church in Morganton, Ga., were at Laguna Christian Resort. A man who answered the phone at Laguna Christian Resort on Tuesday said people were “shocked” but declined further comment.

Simmons said if there is anything positive to take from the situation it is that McAllister was found and not lost.

“I’m glad I was able to help and I’m thankful I was able to find her, for her family’s sake,” he said. “We’re all thinking about her family and we’re deeply sorry to have witnessed this.”