DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — A Decatur native died after drowning off the coast of Myrtle Beach after saving a young girl caught in a rip current.
47-year-old Derrick Moore was from Decatur and was living in Georgia, working as an elementary school teacher.
According to WAND News partner Atlanta News First, Moore jumped into the ocean after spotting a girl in distress on Friday, August 7. Moore was pulled under by the current, and his body was recovered the next morning nearly a mile from where he entered the water, Myrtle Beach police said. The young girl survived.
Moore's family said he had never met the girl before jumping in to save her.
“He is a selfless human being and a generous person, and he will be sorely missed by the community and certainly by us as a family because we deeply love our son,” Suzette Moore, Derrick Moore’s mother, said. “... He had such a big heart, and he actually displayed it on a regular basis.”
According to Moore's obituary, he was a native of Decatur, Illinois.
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