Holden Beach News

The state Senate approved a bill Thursday that changes 2011 legislation that established a pilot project to allow up to four terminal groins, small jetties located at inlets to help control shoreline erosion, to be built along the coast.

Holden Beach Police Chief Wally Layne says the body of Kwesi Sample was found around 7 a.m. about a half mile from where he was last seen.

Authorities say the swimmer went missing around 5:30 Tuesday night when he and about eight of his friends were attempting to swim from Holden Beach to Oak Island.

Sample was visiting Holden Beach with the Xenos Christian Fellowship from Columbus, Ohio.

A Columbus man is missing and presumed drowned after he disappeared beneath the water while swimming with friends yesterday at Holden Beach, N.C. Authorities were continuing today to search for the body of Kwesi Sample, 21, of the Near East Side, in the waters of the Lockwood Folly Inlet.

A helicopter, Oak Island and Holden Beach police, fire departments and EMS are actively searching for the missing man.

The General Assembly approved in 2011 a compromise bill that would end the state's 25-year ban on the hardened structures and allow up to four of them to be built.