Westchester teen drowns in waters off Shelter Island, police say

A Westchester County teen died of an apparent drowning Saturday in the waters off Shelter Island, police said.

Shelter Island police said the victim, identified as Timothy Magambo, 18, of Pelham, was with a group of seven friends, one of whom has an on-island family residence, and "became separated" from the pack as they crossed a shallow channel from Wades Beach to Shell Beach at about 3 p.m. Police said Magambo turned back during the crossing, but never made it to shore.

"When the group was unable to locate him," police said in a news release detailing the incident, "he was subsequently reported missing."

Police said that not long after calling for help, members of the group, with assistance from a bystander on the beach, found Magambo "floating face-down, several hundred yards south of the point where he was last observed wading back to shore."

Magambo was brought to shore, where police said life-saving measures were "immediately" attempted by responding police, fire and EMS personnel. The teen was transported to Stony Brook-Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport and later to Stony Brook University Hospital.

"Despite extensive rescue and medical efforts," police said, "the individual later succumbed to injuries consistent with drowning."

Police said the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office was conducting an investigation and would determine the official cause of death. But police said the incident was believed to be "accidental in nature" — with no criminality suspected.

According to his LinkedIn page, Magambo was a freshman at the University at Albany. Profile information on the NCSA College Recruiting website and other high school prep sports websites said he played football and lacrosse at Pelham Memorial High School. Records show he was also an honor roll student in high school.

The area where the incident occurred is northwest of the South Ferry landing at the entrance to West Neck Harbor.

Official area navigation charts show the water depth ranges between 5 and 12 feet in much of the channel between Wades Beach and the end of the peninsula anchored by Oak Tree Lane, but show depths can drop off dramatically to the west and east of that area.

Police said currents also can be stronger in the narrow channel — and said the water temperature was about 57 degrees when the incident occurred.

The U.S. Coast Guard describes any water colder than 70 degrees as "cold water," and its official cold water survival guide charts note immersion in water temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees can result in the loss of dexterity and muscle control in less than 10 minutes, making self-rescue "near-impossible" without thermal protection.

However, the Vancouver, Washington-based National Center for Cold Water Survival said those estimates can sometimes be "misleading," noting they can "greatly understate" the dangers of cold water exposure.

That is because, the center said, the guides don't take into account factors like waves, wave splash, inhalation of water and tidal currents.

All can trigger the onset of hypothermia sooner than the official charts suggest, according to the center's website.

Additional information was not immediately available Monday. 

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.