3 boys drown in creek in Federalsburg - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

Natural Resources Police say the deaths of three boys who drowned in a shallow creek on Maryland's Eastern Shore appear to be the result of a swimming accident.

The bodies of 12-year-old Vladimir Petron Jacotin, his 11-year-old cousin, Christopher Toto Gabriel, and six-year-old Yamoude Dona were pulled from Marshyhope Creek on Sunday.

The boys, members of a small Haitian community in the area, were last seen playing basketball in a church parking lot next to the creek on Saturday evening.

The Rev. Thomas Willeme, pastor of a Federalsburg church attended by Vladimir's family, said parents of the boys told him that none of them could swim.

Willeme said Monday that one of the biggest concerns now for the families is how to pay for the boys' funerals.

Capt. Jerry Kirkwood of the Maryland Natural Resources police says the boys' parents were at work Saturday. He says it's possible they went into the creek to cool off. The creek is 25 feet wide and 5-to-10 feet deep.

Rescue dogs helped lead authorities to the bodies Sunday morning. The third body was recovered with the help of a dive team.