Divers Find Body of Boy Lost in Surf : Tragedy: Family waits on beach as search ends. But one brother stays away, haunted by the sight of the victim being swept to his death.

After 13-year-old Rodolfo Ramirez disappeared Saturday while frolicking in the chilly waves off Manhattan Beach, more than a dozen members of the Ramirez family gathered along the city’s shoreline as divers searched for the boy.

When divers found Rodolfo’s body a quarter of a mile off the foggy coastline Monday, nearly all of his family were gathered along the shoreline. But Rodolfo’s older brother, Ricardo, could not bear to be there.

Ricardo, 16, was one of the last people to see his brother alive, and he could not shake the painful memory of seeing Rodolfo disappear under the churning surf.

“I keep seeing the scene replayed in my mind,” Ricardo said Monday outside the family’s gray stucco house on East 107th Street in Watts. “I feel so empty inside.”

The two brothers and five friends, including a friend’s mother, had left their sweltering neighborhood Saturday with plans to shop at an arts and crafts store in Manhattan Beach. Because it was so hot, the group decided to visit the beach in the afternoon.

But before they spread a blanket across the sand, Rodolfo yanked off his sneakers and ran into the water wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Ricardo said.

The hot weather and large crowds probably reminded Rodolfo of summer, his brother said. Rodolfo liked the beach, and he liked to swim in calm waters.

But the ocean Rodolfo entered was pure winter.

A storm had kicked up chilly, 10-foot waves that were pounding the shore. Heavy surf the previous few days had left deep holes near the shore and treacherous currents capable of sweeping even the most experienced swimmer out to sea.

On Monday, Ricardo remembered seeing Rodolfo enter the water and seeing the lifeguard running toward the water a few minutes later. The lifeguard could not get there in time. About 50 feet from shore, a large wave crashed near the boy, said Senior Lifeguard Jim Boulgarides. While the search went on Sunday, Ricardo said, “I still had hope they could find him, but I knew . . . he was gone.”

Officials Monday said the coroner’s office had yet to determine how Rodolfo died but assumed that he had drowned. They speculated the conditions were simply too much for the boy to handle.

Lifeguards called in divers and a Coast Guard helicopter to help find the boy. As a heavy fog rolled in Sunday, the search continued. At one point, as many as 18 divers searched for the boy’s body.

It was found Monday morning about 30 feet below the ocean’s surface. His parents, Estella and Ruben Ramirez, along with Ricardo and the family’s other child, Victor, 11, grieved in their Watts home Monday afternoon.

“For me it hurt,” Ricardo said. For his parents, he said, “I can’t imagine what it’s like.”