A normal day at the beach until a child goes missing

It was a picture-perfect weekend afternoon on the Jersey Shore, with just a faint haze on the water and waves of heat rising from the sand.

A sunburned dad threw a football back and forth with his son. Shapely teenage girls in bikinis ran giggling into the surf. Out in the deeper water, young men yelled and dunked each other. A plane flew overhead, trailing a banner that advertised $2 nachos and a beer that rhymes with Spud Fight. People of all ages, shapes and elaborateness of body ink walked in both directions along the wet sand, talking.