Suspected human remains have been discovered at the same unpatrolled beach where a private school student was swept out to sea during Schoolies week.
Astin Gerstl, 18, was last seen struggling to swim after he became caught in a rip at Little Bay Beach on the NSW Mid North Coast at 4.30pm on Sunday.
His friends and locals tried their best to rescue the teenager but he disappeared beneath the water before they could reach him.
Marine Rescue NSW vessels searched from Laggers Point to Gap Beach for almost eight hours to no avail on Monday.
The search for Astin was then suspended the following day due to deteriorating offshore conditions, which forced authorities back to land.
But, on Friday, NSW Police confirmed that human remains had been located by a member of the public at the same beach around 7.30am.
‘The remains have been taken for forensic examination,’ the statement said.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Astin had just finished his HSC at The King’s School in Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, and was on a Schoolies trip with friends when he disappeared.
The school’s acting headmaster, Stephen Edwards, urged Astin’s former classmates to ‘hold him in their hearts’ in a letter sent out on Tuesday.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this profoundly difficult time,’ he wrote.
That same day Astin’s father, Mark Gerstl, was seen making phone calls on the beach where his son went missing. He was accompanied by another unknown man.
Astin’s mother, Amy, and brother, Orion, also made the trip to the Mid North Coast soon after news of his disappearance reached Sydney.
It is understood that Astin was a boarder at the school and is the grandson of former Supreme Court Justice Roddy Meagher, who died in 2011.
Little Bay Beach is a popular picnic spot but there are no patrols and swimming is not recommended by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Astin’s disappearance is the latest tragedy on the Mid North Coast in the last week, with a 59-year-old man drowning near Crescent Head last Friday.
The day before, Swiss tourist Livia Mühlheim, 25, was killed in a shark attack at Kylie’s Beach last Thursday.
Her partner Lukas Schindler was also injured in the attack but survived.
