Westerly ― Family and friends of a 15-year-old New London boy who died while swimming in Westerly last week are raising money to send his body to his hometown in Guatemala for burial.

Jaimer Martin Ico Gregorio was identified by police as the swimmer who went missing early Thursday night off a jetty near Dunes Park.

Gregorio was presumed dead after an intensive search by police and local fire departments as well as U.S. Coast Guard boats, divers and a helicopter.

Family and friends had not stopped searching for Gregorio and on Sunday found his body in the waters off Wawaloam Drive in Westerly, just east of where Gregorio had gone missing, police said.

Family said Gregorio had been living with family in New London for about a year, attending middle school and working part time at the Texas Roadhouse in New London to help support his family.

“He’s a good kid, a good student. He came here to try and help his family, his mom,” said Gregorio’s uncle, Juan Gregorio of New London, on Monday.

Juan Gregorio said his nephew’s father lives here in New London but his mother and brother, along with other family members, are in Guatemala. Family friend Jose Osorio said Jaimer Gregorio’s family and friends here in Connecticut are still trying to figure out the logistics of sending the teen’s body back to Guatemala.

His body, as of Monday, was still at the Rhode Island medical examiner’s office, where an autopsy was being performed to determine his cause of death.

Osorio said details of how Gregorio, known locally as Jaime, went missing are unclear.

Police said Gregorio was with a group at a public jetty near Dunes Park on Thursday evening when he vanished in the water about 7:15 p.m.

Dunes Park beach is a small private beach off Atlantic Avenue that offers bathrooms, showers and lifeguards during the day for people who pay the $30 fee to park during the week. The gates are closed at 5:30 p.m., and no lifeguards are on duty after that time.

The jetty where Gregorio disappeared is adjacent to the beach and accessible from a public parking area at the Weekapaug Fishing Area, which offers a walking path along the rock-lined Weekapaug Breachway.

Marty Fox, a Dunes Park employee, said the entrance to the beach parking lot closes at 5:30 p.m. and there are no lifeguards on duty at that time. On the day Gregorio disappeared, Fox said there was a “red flag warning,” on the beach at Dunes Park, which means visitors, as a safety precaution, were not allowed to go into the water above their knees because of 5- to 6-foot swells.

“It’s a sad situation all around,” Fox said of Gregorio’s death.

Fox said Gregorio and the group he was with were not parked at Dunes Park though it is not unusual for some visitors to walk from the nearby jetty.

Evelyn and Ceasar Cristiansen of Webster, Mass., have been visiting Dunes Park for decades and said the waters flowing through the Weekapaug Breachway look dangerously swift, especially when the tide is moving. Most of the people out on the jetty on Monday were fishing, others sitting along the large rocks that form the jetty.

Evelyn Cristiansen said she heard about the teen’s death and could not help thinking about her own 15-year-old grandson.

“It’s so, so sad. I feel for his mother,” she said.

And while the discovery of the Gregorio’s body is a sad moment, Evelyn Cristiansen said she hoped it would bring some closure for the family.

Gregorio would have started at New London High School this year. In a letter to the New London school community, school Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie said the district’s “thoughts and prayers go out to the family, the first responders, and the entire school community, of which this student was a beloved part.”

“Our hearts are broken,” Ritchie said.

The district is offering district-wide and school-level crisis intervention teams, made up of professionals who support the emotional needs of the students, staff and families during difficult times such as this. The crisis teams will be available to meet with students for grief counseling on Monday through Wednesday at the Science and Technology Magnet High School building beginning at 9 a.m.

A Gofundme fundraiser is collecting funds to bring Gregorio’s body to Guatemala.

g.smith@theday.com

Editor’s note: This version corrects the spelling of Jaimer Gregorio.